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Meeting the Paris Climate Goals Was Always Hard. Without the U.S., It Is Far Harder. - The New York Times

posted onJune 3, 2017
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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — In December 2015, delegates from 195 nations announced to a roar of applause in Paris that they had finally sealed a pact aimed at keeping global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst ravages of climate change. The negotiators knew even then that this goal would be extremely difficult to meet under the terms of the accord. But now that President Trump has announced that the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, it seems all but impossible. “Even before the United States pulled out, no country was in the ballpark of doing what needed to be done,” said Glen Peters, a researcher at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Norway, who has warned that the world is unlikely to keep global warming below 2 degrees. In the wake of Mr. Trump’s withdrawal, leaders in Europe, China and elsewhere are insisting they will carry on tackling global warming anyway. Miguel Arias Cañete, the European commissioner for climate action and energy, denounced Mr. Trump’s decision, brandishing a copy of the agreement as he spoke to reporters in Brussels on Friday. “The fight against climate change cannot depend on the result of elections in one country or another,” he said. But what’s now very much in question is whether the world can still meet its broader climate goals. The Earth has already warmed 1 degree since humans began burning fossil fuels, and countries have dithered so long in taking... Link to the full article to read more

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