CGD in the News

Trump’s Climate Pullout Could Spell Disaster For Developing Nations (IRIN)

June 05, 2017

From the article:

And, as Jonah Busch, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, pointed out, withdrawing from the Paris Agreement is only one of several counterproductive things the Trump administration is doing on the issue.

"They are zeroing out budgets left and right for climate,” Busch said. “The president is using executive orders to roll back climate regulations, and the pattern indicates that the climate will be not a high priority in bilateral negotiations either."

While many countries will remain reliant on the United States because of its sheer weight on the global marketplace, experts agree that other big economies that have reasserted their climate commitments will become increasingly more attractive.

After the United States pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, other major polluters used the move as an excuse to do less, Busch noted. "But what we are seeing now is with the US walking away from Paris other countries are rallying around leadership from China and the EU to do more."

"If you're a country in the Pacific that's in danger of going under water, or a country in sub-Saharan Africa looking at hotter temperatures making it even more difficult to grow food, then you're gonna be less likely to deal amicably with the US over this decision,” said Busch. And that, he believes, "could well extend from government to businesses."

Read full article here.