Arthur J. Villasanta – Fourth Estate Contributor
New York, NY, United States (4E) – Donald Trump’s daft decision in June to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement has now left the U.S. as the only country in the world not a party to this historic pact aimed at mitigating emissions of global greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.
War-torn Syria on Nov. 7 announced it will join the agreement, making it the 194th member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to have signed the agreement. Of this number, 169 have become party to it.
The only other previous non-signatory to the accord, Nicaragua, announced in September it will definitely join the pact.
The United Nations consists of 193 Member States and two observer states.
The U.S. is the second-largest carbon dioxide-emitting nation on the planet after China. The U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement will take effect on Nov. 4, 2020, which is the day after the U.S. presidential election. The much-reviled Trump will likely lose his bid for re-election.
The Paris Agreement aims to respond to the dangers posed by global climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It also mandates its signatories pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Syria’s deputy minister of local administration and environment, M. Wadah Katmawi, said his country will join the Paris deal “as soon as possible.”
“Syria’s announcement that it will join the Paris agreement leaves President Trump in not-so-splendid isolation as a result of his irresponsible and ignorant decision to withdraw the United States from the most comprehensive effort ever to confront the mounting climate crisis,” said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the U.S.
Democrats on Capitol Hill blasted Trump upon learning the news of the U.S.’ embarrassing isolation. Sen. Dick Durban (D-IL) called it “embarrassing” for the U.S., while Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said that “by ‘America first,’ they meant America last.”
“As if it wasn’t already crystal clear, every single other country in the world is moving forward together to tackle the climate crisis, while Donald Trump has isolated the United States on the world stage in an embarrassing and dangerous position,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, an American environmental organization.
Syria made its announcement during the second day of the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany. Some 25,000 scientists, diplomats, environmental activists and others are meeting in Bonn for two weeks to figure out how to realize the goals of the Paris Agreement.
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