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Critical Topics and Their Significance for the UPSC CSE Examination on January 27, 2025

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Why has the U.S. often exited climate pacts?

For Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

For Mains Examination: GS II & III - Governance & Environment

Context:

Among the first executive orders that Donald Trump signed after taking over as President on January 20 was to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement of 2015. This makes it the third time the U.S. has withdrawn from a treaty signed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Read about:

Paris Agreement

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Key takeaways:

The History of U.S. Engagement with Climate Treaties

• The United States first withdrew from a climate agreement in 2001 when President George W. Bush decided to exit the Kyoto Protocol, which had been adopted in 1997. This treaty was historic as it marked the first time 37 industrialized nations agreed to legally binding targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
• However, President Bush justified the withdrawal by claiming that the treaty would harm the U.S. economy and unfairly exempted 80% of the world, including populous nations like China and India, from compliance. He expressed these concerns in a letter to Republican senators.
• In 2017, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, citing similar concerns. He argued that the agreement placed unfair restrictions on the U.S. while giving advantages to other major polluting nations.
•  The withdrawal also meant that the U.S. would stop pursuing its emission reduction targets and cease contributions to the Green Climate Fund, a resource designed to help vulnerable nations adapt to climate change.
• However, due to the technical requirements of the Paris Agreement, the withdrawal process took three years, with an additional year required to notify the United Nations governing body.
• By the time the withdrawal was finalized in November 2020, Joe Biden had already been elected as the next president. Upon assuming office in January 2021, Biden immediately rejoined the Paris Agreement, reaffirming the U.S. commitment to global efforts to limit global temperature increases to below 2 degrees Celsius, with an aspirational goal of keeping them below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

U.S. Perspectives on Climate Agreements

• Historically, the U.S. has been reluctant to fully embrace legally binding emission cuts, despite being the largest emitter of greenhouse gases until 2006. As the world's largest economy, the U.S. has often positioned itself as a leader in addressing climate change while avoiding strict compliance with European Union-backed climate treaties.
• Since the first Conference of Parties (COP) in 1995, the U.S. has expressed discomfort with the core principle of the UNFCCC, which holds that developed nations, being primarily responsible for historical carbon emissions, should bear the bulk of the costs for mitigation.
• This perspective has also led the U.S. to advocate for mechanisms like joint implementation, where developed nations earn credits by funding clean energy projects in developing countries.
• Even when not formally participating in agreements, the U.S. has sent large delegations to climate conferences to observe and influence negotiations. For example, at COP 11 in 2005, despite not being part of the Kyoto P