Confused about the Paris agreement and why Trump chose to get us out? Róisín Michele clarifies brilliantly.
Something to seriously ponder in regards to the Paris Climate Agreement:
In December 2015, nine months before the end of his presidency, Barrack Obama signed the Paris Accord. The United States did not. In order to ratify it as a treaty 2/3 of the Senate had to approve it. Obama told us it was not a treaty, but an executive agreement between himself and other nations. The Paris agreement was an agreement only with the Obama Administration, and an unratfied treaty in which case it had no effect. The Constitution's separation of powers prevents the President from binding the country unilaterally. Our system does not divide authority into spheres controlled exclusively by the Senate, House and President. It requires combinations of offices to work together.
Obama's counterparties in Paris knew he lacked the support to bind our country. In fact, they watered down the wording of the agreement to support Obama's contention that it did not require ratification.
Examples: they changed the word "shall" to "should" in many places in order to avoid calling it a treaty. The negotiators choose between a treaty that would bind the United States and the promise of an outgoing president. Any claims that Trump or the United States "is going back on its word" is disingenuous. Only Obama gave his word and the other parties in Paris helped design the agreement to throw our Constitution out the window.
Obama ignored his constitutional duty to submit treaties to the Senate. In fact, a statement from the Obama White House said it all when the White House signaled it would bypass the Senate no matter what by saying " I think it's hard to take seriously from some members of Congress who deny the fact that climate change exists, that they should have some opportunity to render judgment about a climate change agreement."
Under the agreement Obama signed, the UN would have called the shots on what we did within our own borders to protect the climate. They would have also had the power to punish us through embargoes and trade agreements.
Under Obama's agreement, China, and the world's major polluters, would be ALLOWED to increase their emissions where the United States could not. India is hinging its participation on billions of dollars of foreign aid.
The agreement was less about the climate and more about other countries gaining financial advantage over the United States. This was a United Nations program that gave foreign leaders in Europe and Asia more say with respect to the United States economy then we do. It would have handicapped the United States economy - it was a deal that would have punished the United States, while imposing no obligations on the world's leading polluters.
China would be allowed to build hundreds of additional coal plants, but we could not, according to the agreement. India would be allowed to double its coal production by 2020, but we would have to get rid of ours. Even Europe would have been allowed to continue construction of coal plants, but we could not.
Obama's requirements in the Paris Accord would have cost the United States economy nearly $3 trillion.
By 2040 our economy would lose 6.5 million industrial sector jobs including 31 million manufacturing sector jobs. It would decapitate our coal industry which now supplies one-third of our electric power.
It imposed unrealistic targets on the United States for reducing our carbon emissions, while giving countries like China a free pass. China would actually be allowed to INCREASE emissions until 2030.
Obama committed $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund - which is about 30 percent of the initial funding - WITHOUT being authorized by Congress.
We are already $20 trillion in debt; US taxpayers should not be paying to subsidize other countries' energy needs.
The United States is already a Clean Energy and Oil & Gas Energy Leader. We can reduce our emissions and continue to produce American energy without the Paris Accord. America has already reduced its carbon-dioxide emissions dramatically (who remembers those yearly emission tests). The United States is the leader in oil and gas production.
For anyone who thought the Paris Accord was all about clean river and air, it is not and never was.
THE AGREEMENT WAS TO FUND A UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE SLUSH FUND UNDERWRITTEN BY THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS.
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