A Global Shift — The Paris Climate Agreement

At the time, the Paris Climate Agreement was a monumental moment for the world to finally collectively address climate change. But now, the US has lost its seat at the table due to our announcement to withdraw from the Agreement. Although China is the lead emitter of carbon emissions, they are also the lead investor in clean technologies, which provides a big economic opportunities for Chinese businesses. Withdrawing from the agreement hurts the US and helps China. In my book EcoShot, I discuss how China is taking our seat at the international table:

Criticism for the US withdrawal also came from Republican members of Congress, including Representative David Reichert (R-WA): “The Paris Accord gives the United States a global platform to be a leading voice on international issues impacting our economy, security, and the environment. With- drawing from the agreement would cause us to lose this influence. I have always believed stewardship of our environment and sound economic policy are not mutually exclusive.”

In mid-2018, a China-EU Summit was held, where the two superpowers agreed to continue to cooperate on climate change and clean energy. The opening line in the joint statement from the Summit said: “The EU and China consider climate action and the clean energy transition an imperative more important than ever. They confirm their commitments under the historic 2015 Paris Agreement and step up their co-operation to enhance its implementation.”

With the US out, China is now in the driver’s seat for climate leadership. Chinese President Xi Jinping commented, “Taking a driving seat in international cooperation to respond to climate change, China has become an important participant, contributor, and torchbearer in the global endeavor for ecological civilization.”

The world is moving forward toward a clean economy, with or without America. Right now, China is taking the reins of the inevitable Clean Industrial Revolution. It’s time for American leadership to step up to the plate during this monumental time in history.

I believe a collective voice from the conservative party can really move the needle in the right direction. As a history lesson, conservation and environmental issues have been a bipartisan topic in the past. In the same chapter, I talk about conservative leadership:

In our American past, conservative leaders have led environmental movements, such as conservation under Roosevelt, environmental policy under Nixon, and the Clean Air Act Amendments under Bush. Additionally, [the Paris Agreement] was not the first time the global community has come together to address a global environmental crisis. In the late 1980s, scientists uncovered a growing hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, which was discovered to be caused by man-made substances used for refrigeration, aerosols, air conditioning, and other appliances. The major signatories behind the agreement were conservative leaders: US President Ronald Reagan, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Reagan sold US leadership for addressing this global issue as an “insurance policy,” which, looking back retroactively, was a smart choice for America and for the globe. Addressing climate change is an insurance policy as well, as the cost of action is 1 percent of GDP while the cost of inaction could potentially be 5–20 percent of GDP.

“Thirty years ago the world proved it can come together and tackle a global problem with global resolve,” said Erik Solheim, head of the United Nations Environment Programme. Due to international agreement, the ozone layer is on track to recovery over the next few decades. Similar to the Montreal Protocol, our future depends on international cooperation with the Paris Climate Agreement.

Our political leaders should be a collective voice behind ending the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, so America can continue to play an influential role in international matters, particularly for climate change. We can’t be the global leader in cleantech if we are sending the wrong signals to American innovators, entrepreneurs, and executives.

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If you’re interested in reading EcoShot: How America Can Win The Industrial Revolution Against China, you can order it now on Amazon! Also, if you’re passionate about climate change and cleantech, let’s connect on Twitter, and you can follow me here on Medium. I’d love to have feedback, so leave a comment.