On US President Donald Trump's first day in office, he chose to withdraw the US from the international climate agreement, the Paris Agreement - again.
According to Sebastian Mernild, who is a professor and center director at the Climate Cluster at the University of Southern Denmark and a researcher in climate change and global warming, we can expect a standstill in the US's green transition in the next four years.
- We are in a very worrying place, and Trump is not helping to make it less worrying -- on the contrary, says Sebastian Mernild.
- But we must understand that there are also other dynamics when it comes to climate, including the role of the oil states in the global climate accounts, he adds.
The world's second largest emitter
According to Sebastian Mernild, the US is an important part of the agreement, because the country is the world's second largest emitter and accounts for around one sixth of global emissions of greenhouse gases. But at the same time, according to Mernild, it is important to see Trump's presidency in a broader time perspective.
- Trump's term is just a small window of time in relation to the long period in which we have seen increasing emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere, he says.
He points out that President Joe Biden from the Democratic Party was also unable to fulfill the Paris Agreement.
- It is not the United States that will set the direction for our global green transition, they would have done it a long time ago, and the Biden administration would have done more. So it is not Trump who will cause the whole thing to fall into the abyss. More is needed than that, he says.
Will others follow suit?
Trump's announcement has created fears that other countries will also withdraw from the agreement.
- I can think of one or two European countries that could use this as an excuse to slow down the pace of the green transition in the EU, said Denmark's Climate Minister Lars Aagaard (M) to Ritzau on Tuesday.
The last time Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement, no other countries followed suit. For Mernild, it is a good sign.
- I don't think it set a precedent for it to happen this time, says Sebastian Mernild.
According to him, the US decision can affect other countries in several ways.
- It can both lead to some countries doing less to combat global warming, but it can also lead to other countries doing more because new market opportunities are opening up, he says.
The Paris Agreement is an international agreement to reduce global warming that has been signed by almost 200 countries. During Trump's first presidential term in 2017, he announced that he would withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement. It was not until 2020 that the decision came into effect.
Joe Biden rejoined the US in the agreement when he became president. That was the decision that Trump reversed again on Monday.
/ritzau/
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