Politics in the US Impacts Climate Change Partnerships between the US & EU
Climate change is a problem that connects everyone around the world. It is not a siloed problem with siloed solutions. We must act together to help mitigate and delay its impact. This blog post will examine the partnerships between the U.S. and EU to tackle climate change and how party politics in the United States impact these partnerships on climate change. Then the blog will end with recommendations on how to keep partnerships strong even during a party change. First, it is important to understand climate change and why it is vital to address it together. According to NASA, there is unequivocal evidence to support that the warming of the climate is a result of human activity. Carbon dioxide and other gases trap heat into the atmosphere, which increases temperature. The high amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases released into the atmosphere can lead to myriad problems. Ice melting in the North and South poles that leads to increased water levels can impact residents living on coast lines. Increased air pollution can lead increased rates of breathing problems such as allergies and respiratory conditions. This warmer weather also can impact food crops, which can lead to a greater rate of famine and hunger around the world. These are just a few problems that are a result of climate change. Climate change is real, has a large impact on life as we know it, and is not a future problem. Climate change is here and needed to be addressed yesterday.
Since climate change is such a critical issue, international partnerships are necessary to come up with solutions. This part of the blog will go over some examples of partnership between the U.S. and the EU to tackle climate change. The United States and the European Union partner with other countries to tackle climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The purpose of this is for countries to work together and hold each other accountable to reduce greenhouse gases. From this there have been several other climate agreements to help tackle climate change. For example, the U.S. and the EU are apart of the Paris Climate Agreement. Under the Paris Climate Agreement, the U.S., the EU, and its member states agreed that they would work to reduce their emissions that contribute to climate change. The goal with this agreement is to keep global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius.
Having covered why climate change is important and some ways the U.S. and the EU have partnered to tackle climate change, it is now important to talk about how politics in the U.S. impacts these partnerships. In the United States, the two-party system creates a situation where there is one party with leadership that is more likely to support partnerships with trans-national organizations to tackle climate change (Democrats) and another party that is less likely (Republican). Since each party is on a spectrum, it can vary what policy will look like depending on what Republican and what Democrat is elected. In 2016 Donald Trump was elected to office. Donald Trump was a pro-business Republican who wanted to ensure that businesses were given the best policies to thrive to create and maintain jobs for America. Thus, Donald Trump pulled out of different climate partnerships during his time in office. The video below shows Trump explaining his reason to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement. In the video, Donald Trump shares how he thinks this pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement will be “more fair for businesses”. I worry that “more fair for businesses” will lead to more greenhouse gases in the climate which will lead to more climate change.
In 2020, Joe Biden took office. The Biden Administration campaigned on the fact that they would re-join the Paris Climate Agreement and supported global initiatives to tackle climate change. Under the Biden Administration, the US rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement and agreed to work with transatlantic partners like the EU to reduce their emissions. This example just shows the dramatic changes that can happen in only four years to climate change partnerships just by a change in election. A total shift from supporting these partnerships under Obama, to Trump disengaging, and to Biden reengaging with these partnerships
How can the EU trust that the United States will do what it says it will do when it comes to climate change when it can so easily be undone by who is in office? There are some recommendations and ideas that I have come up with to try to help mitigate the U.S. from changing partnerships so easily. For one, the United States should have policies in place that prevent one administration from pulling out of these climate agreements so easily like Donald Trump did with the Paris Climate Agreement. Instead of pulling out completely, the US government could utilize more checks and balances through congress. This would allow for more deliberation to take place on what should happen next. Additionally, it could allow for a compromise instead of just pulling out complete. The problem with pulling out completely is that it can lead to distrust that the U.S. will do what they say they will do in future partnerships. Also, it sets back climate change initiatives which further hurts the environments.
Lastly, it is important to recognize the role that the United Nations has as an international organization to help promote cooperation among states on climate change. Many people in the U.S. and the EU do not even know about many of the partnerships and initiatives to tackle climate change. One recommendation is to increase media campaigns in both the U.S. and the EU to help spread awareness on what the UN does. It will require a joint effort in order to tackle climate change and people deserve to be informed on the issue.
