Press Release
Protest against Trump administration’s announcement on the Paris Agreement
- Japan should move ahead and strengthen measures to implement Paris Agreement -
June 2, 2017
Kiko Network
Mie Asaoka
On June 2nd, President Trump announced to pull United States out from the Paris Agreement. Climate change is a serious global threat against the current and future generations. The impact of climate change is already real and these impacts will accelerate. After long negotiations, the Paris Agreement is a historical agreement with limiting the increase of global temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial level and pursue efforts to 1.5 degrees Celsius and creating a decarbonized economy and society.
The United States is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, and is historically the most responsible for emissions. After the immense contribution to the success for the Paris Agreement by the United States and China, President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Agreement is a reckless act towards the global movement working on climate change. It would damage the United States’ reputation and trust, and can harm the United States economy in a growing green market.
The Paris agreement entered into force in November of last year and 148 countries/regions has ratified it up to this point. Furthermore, not only the countries, but also at the local, regional, business and civil level, the movements are growing to make the transition to renewable energy and systemize a fossil-fuel free economy in order to achieve the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement. Also in the recent G7 summit in Italy, Japan and other G7 countries confirmed the swift implementation of the Paris Agreement. China and EU has also shown leadership to promote the implementation of the Paris Agreement after the United States withdrawal.
Japan’s role to respond to the United States’ decision is important. The government announced to work on measures to combat climate change as one of the top priority, there are many contradictions in the energy policy including its support on nuclear energy and energy intensive industries. Rather than considering the Unites States withdrawal as a misfortune and roll back its domestic measures, Japan should strengthen its climate target and measures, and fulfill its obligation to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement without waiting the return of the United States.
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