In response to President Trump’s administration’s submission to the United Nations of the necessary paperwork to formally withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change, Jesse Young, Oxfam America’s Climate Change Policy Lead, made the following statement:
“The United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement is an indefensible, pointless, and morally bankrupt capitulation that will only serve to weaken the global effort to combat the climate crisis at the very moment we should do everything we can to avert climate catastrophe.
“Simply put, it is the wrong thing to do, at the wrong time, and for the wrong reasons.
“Last year, US CO2 emissions grew at a faster rate than China’s and the US remains the world’s largest historical emitter. The US has an obligation to step up on climate change and yet this administration continues to bury its head in the sand.
“Scientists have been clear: climate change is already affecting every sector and region of America and is a critical threat to millions of Americans’ health, homes, and livelihoods.
“But climate change is also a global threat affecting every country and every continent. And it is the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people – those who rely on rain to grow crops, live in fragile housing and who lack savings or insurance – who are hit the hardest, despite having contributed the least to the problem.
“The clock is ticking, and the Paris Agreement is essential to avoid climate catastrophe. The US is now on course to be the only country in the world not party to the agreement.
“Americans are responding by mobilizing. More than 3,800 leaders from US local, tribal and state government, the private sector, and others have declared that ‘We Are Still In’ on the Paris Agreement, including 25 governors and more than 430 Mayors across America who remain committed to upholding the goals of the Agreement. American voters believe we should participate in the Paris Climate Agreement by a margin of 5 to 1, and many participated in the climate strike in September, one of the largest climate mobilizations in US history. The clock is ticking, but it hasn’t stopped yet.”