We were not planning to send out a blog tonight, but Trump’s decision to take the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement, well, changed all that. Mainly because Blanche didn’t quite get the whole thing – not the agreement and not the withdrawal. So we figured if we don’t understand what’s flying, neither do many other people. Here we go – the Paris Agreement from soup to nuts:
What is the Paris Agreement? Also referred to as the Paris climate deal, Paris Accord and Paris climate agreement, it is a deal that was signed in December 2015 and came into effect in November 2016. 195 countries signed the agreement which stated that they would reduce emissions that cause climate change in order to combat global warming.
…Specifically the Paris Agreement set out to prevent the planet warming by more than 2°C which scientists believe would cause severe damage. Each country involved makes ‘nationally determined contributions’ (NDCs) which should contribute towards the overall objective of the deal.
What happens now Trump has pulled out of the Paris Agreement? Trump cannot technically pull the US from the agreement until November 2019 but there are ways round that commitment if he so wished to.
…Syria, Nicaragua and now the United States are the only three countries who do not support the accord.
And now the biggest question of all…why did Trump pull out? Firstly, because it was one of his main campaign promises. He did it to save American jobs saying that the accord handicaps the US economy.
And now for the other side… In climate negotiations leading up to the Paris conference, participants called for a Green Climate Fund that would collect $100 billion per year by 2020.
…The Obama administration ended up shipping $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to this fund without authorization from Congress.
…North Korea and Iran are also signatories of the deal.
..China has serious air quality issues (not from carbon dioxide), and Beijing has repeatedly falsified its coal consumption and air monitoring data, even as it participated in the Paris Agreement.
Only time will tell if Trump made the right decision. One thing we can say with certainty – at this point in time, those who didn’t like him, to put it mildly, have been rendered apoplectic by his decision today. The media is literally going out of their minds and the enviornmentalists have lost theirs.
And now for something totally off the wall, brought to you by the Quebec government. One day after inviting players to make wagers on whether Trump would still be U.S. president after May 1, 2018 on its Mise-o-jeu platform cancelled the bet on Thursday.
Got that Blanche? Loto-Quebec will no longer be betting on whether Trump will be president after May 2018. Ya can’t make this stuff up.
Good Shabbos, We’ll talk…
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