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Alex Platt

Stacie Weatbrook

ENG 1010

5 August 2017

Why did President Trump withdraw from the Paris climate accord?

Climate change has been an ever growing concern worldwide. In an effort to stop this

threat, many of the worlds leaders signed an agreement to work together to fight climate

change. At the time, Barack Obama signed this agreement on behalf of the United States. This

agreement is known as the Paris Climate Accord. Recently President Trump announced that he

and the United States would be withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord. This news, as with

most of the stories surrounding our current commander in chief is riddled with controversy.

There are obviously many large corporations, and even countries that have a lot to lose or gain

from this move. However, as it is the planet we all live on, and I think that planet outweighs the

value of money, I have chosen not to use the corporations as the stakeholders, but rather the

people.

There are many reasons why the president might have decided we needed to withdraw.

According to some, as well as in his own mind, it appears that he made the move to make

certain resources more available to the American economy. Yet there are many who dont trust

his reasoning, these people tend to think that he did it for the sole purpose that he does not

believe in climate change. Another group of people make arguments about how president

Trump withdrew from the agreement because of a lack of understanding of the agreement, and

a lack of understanding the actual effects both positive and negative it could have.

The first group seems to stem from certain things the president said in a statement,

made on June 1, 2017 President Trump addresses his decision to withdraw from the Paris

Climate Accord, he says:

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I am fighting every day for the great people of this country. Therefore, in order to fulfill

my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from

the Paris Climate Accord but begin negotiations to reenter either the Paris Accord or a

really entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States.

The term fair to the United States is meant to refer to the fact that under the agreement,

we are restricted from the use of many of the resources beneath our soil, such as coal and fossil

fuels. He, and others believe that there is a lot to gain by making these resources available to

harvest and use. There are many more who support this statement, and believe this to be the

correct course of action, and also believe that the president will follow through on these

commitments.

Whether the second group believes this to be true or not is not their main concern. They

have a seemingly deep-rooted mistrust in the president, and dont believe he is being honest

about his given reasons. Many of these people have cited the presidents lack of belief in

climate change, and therefore fear that he will not follow through with renegotiations. Ian Prasad

Philbrick points out that during the presidents statement, the president claims that the

agreement would cost the United States billions and billions and billions of dollars. Philbrick

argues that the United States had pledged only three billion dollars. Therefore, according to

Phlibrick, this statement would be incorrect Grammatically speaking. Meaning that six billion is

the minimum amount that can correctly be referred to as billions and billions and billions. This

argument clearly stems from a sincere lack of trust in Donald Trump, and seems to be a mini

theme surrounding his presidency.

In a lengthy article written for Politifact, entitled Fact-Checking Donald Trump's

Statement Withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, Jon Greenberg dissects President

Trumps entire statement regarding the withdrawal from the agreement, and finds exception to

most of it. As I read this article I wasnt necessarily under the impression that Mr. Greenberg
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intended to claim that the president was intentionally lying to the public. Rather I felt that his

intent was just to disprove many of the presidents claims. In his argument regarding the

economy and the United States natural resources, Greenberg attacks the model the president

quoted. Jon Greenberg cites Yale professor Kenneth Gillingham saying that the model the

president used tends to result in higher costs than other economic models. Meaning that the

impact the president claims these restrictions have on the United States is likely less than

president Trump claims in his statement.

I tend to agree with those that dont trust Donald Trump. I think it is pretty obvious that he

is not opposed to making some pretty outlandish claims that cannot be supported. He has a

history of being caught in lies, and it doesnt seem to faze him. I recall him saying he doesnt

think that climate change is something to be concerned with. Frankly, I do not understand to

what degree we need to be concerned about climate change. However, I do think that he has

tried to keep the promises he made during his campaign. I also think he means it when he says

that he is making this move so that he can continue keeping those promises. If he follows

through and renegotiates a deal for the United States to reenter the Paris Climate Accord, I think

that would be great. It is my belief that if he were to either renegotiate terms of the agreement,

or as he said, enters an entirely different commitment to reduce greenhouse emission; I think

the critics of his withdrawal would have to rethink their position. If we start tapping into this

countrys vast resources, creating revenue, and jobs for the American people, as well as

maintain a commitment to reducing emission, I dont understand how anyone could be upset.
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Works Cited

Greenberg, Jon. "Fact-Checking Donald Trump's Statement Withdrawing from the Paris Climate

Agreement." Politifact. 1 June 2017.

Philbrick, Ian Prasad. "Trump Thinks We Spend "Billions and Billions and Billion" on the Paris

Climate Deal. We Don't." Slate. 2 June 2017.

Trump, Donald. "Statements by President Trump on the Paris Climate Accord." The White

House. 1 June 2017. 22 July 2017.