Paris Climate Agreement: U.S. Out - But for How Long?

The United States formally withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement last Wednesday. With this move, Donald Trump has fulfilled his promise to remove the world's second largest emitter of greenhouse gases from the global initiative to combat climate change.

And this at a time when more and more countries are setting high targets to get emissions under control. In recent weeks alone, China, Japan and South Korea have published new carbon reduction plans, while the EU has also set ambitious targets.

“The U.S. withdrawal will leave a gap in our regime, and the global efforts to achieve the goals and ambitions of the Paris Agreement,” said Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), according to news agency Reuters.

However, should Joe Biden become the new president of the USA, he will return to the Agreement immediately, as he announced on Twitter:

Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it. https://t.co/L8UJimS6v2

- Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 5, 2020

The 77 days refer to the day when the next U.S. President is sworn in.

This would mean that Joe Biden would walk into open arms: Espinosa stressed that the panel would be “ready to assist the U.S. in any effort in order to rejoin the Paris Agreement.”