The United States has re-joined the Paris Agreement officially. It is a global treaty for a response to the climate crisis that was adopted in December 2015 by 195 countries.
Key Points
- In November 2020, the US left the Paris Agreement. However, the Trump administration kept itself away from the international accord in terms of federal climate action for four years even as sub-national players were taking steps for a cleaner future.
- Now, after three months of official exit, the US has rejoined the Paris accord and is also looking forward to the successful UN Climate Conference- COP26 in Glasgow this year.
- It was a promise made by Joe Biden during his election campaign that the country will re-join the Paris accord if they come in power.
- Leaders from various coalitions have now urged the Biden administration to commit to ambitious targets like decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% or more by the year 2030 (from a 2005 baseline) and put the country on a path to net-zero emissions by the year 2050.
The US is the biggest historical polluter and second biggest emitter after China. India is figured at 4th position after the European Union nations (put together) at 3rd position. The EU has already pledged to reach carbon neutrality by the year 2050. Japan, the UK, and South Korea have pledged to reach net-zero emissions by the year 2050. China aims to do so by the year 2060.
Emission Gap Report
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) ’emission gap report’ has highlighted that the emissions of the richest 1% of the global population account for more than twice the combined share of the poorest 50%. It means wealthy countries like EU nations; the USA, Russia, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, etc. have greater responsibility to bring down their respective emissions to reach the Paris Agreement goals of limiting global warming this century to well below 2 degrees C and pursuing 1.5 degrees C.
