WASHINGTON, DC – The United States has officially exited the Paris Climate Agreement (as of Wednesday), roughly three and a half years after President Donald Trump pledged to do so. The agreement, reached in December of 2015, brought 194 countries together to combat climate change and to accelerate investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future. Under President Obama, the U.S. pledged to contribute financially one-third of the financial cost of the agreement ($3 billion of the $10 billion total), despite not being one of the top polluting countries. For that reason, the Trump Administration informed the United Nations that the U.S. would exit the agreement on November 4, 2020 (the earliest date allowed under the agreement). Andrew Wheeler, Administrator of the Enivronmental Protection Agency (EPA) explains that the exit from the Agreement hasn’t stopped the country from pushing forward on cleaner air, citing that as of 2020, air in the U.S. is 77 percent cleaner than when the EPA was founded in 1970. Former Vice President Joe Biden has vowed to rejoin the Paris Agreement on the first day of office if elected President.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)