"Trump’s withdrawal is a backlash against the dynamic that existed since the agreement has been signed, but it is not a fatal coup… But we need to understand that Paris agreement was never enough, it is not a magic wand that will resolve all the climate problems overnight… So Trump complicated the situation but it’s not desperate, because the countries are mobilized, and even within the US we see a lot of states like California, San Francisco, New York, Chicago who pledged to do everything in their capacity to match the Paris agreement requirements," Le Comte said, adding that the states understood that further steps on emissions reduction and renewable energy development were needed to be taken.
The Oxfam representative added that the decision countered Trump's pledges to create more jobs for the US citizens and was economically harmful for the United States in the first place, because the future laid in the renewable energy sector.
Le Compe pointed out that the move led to the isolation of the United States on the international arena, as many other states, in particular France and Germany that are in forefront of the fight against climate change, vowed their support for the deal.
The Paris climate deal, created within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and championed by former US President Barack Obama, was signed in 2015 by 194 countries and ratified by 143. The agreement aims at keeping the increase in average global temperature at below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
