Op-Ed: How the U.S. came to protect the natural world — and exploit it at the same time
The world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters — the U.S. and China — have begun to embrace an emerging global accord on climate change. But while China and other developing countries in Africa and the tropics may soon be locked in a protracted battle with the U.S. over its role in a global agreement, their fight also risks leaving the planet dangerously altered.
In this three-part series, we examine the potential impact of U.S. dominance of climate negotiations and conclude that, despite its economic and national security interests in the process, the U.S. may have lost — and may have to pay — a much higher price for its inaction.
In early 2015, the U.S. and China signed the global climate change agreement known as the Paris Agreement. The accord is the first attempt to unite the world’s major economies on a global response to climate change.
The U.S. signed the deal with much fanfare, and it is rightly seen as a historic turning point for U.S. climate leadership. As the Washington Post’s climate writer Josh Zeitz observes, the agreement is “almost certainly the best deal in history”:
It goes further than any other agreement on climate, not just the Kyoto Protocol but the entire international climate and energy regime, with provisions for “no-carbon emissions” to run for a century or more. It aims to achieve global emissions reductions by 2020 that are as high as the equivalent of “holding the world’s temperature unchanged” over the next 20 years. The agreement goes beyond simply reducing emissions of carbon dioxide — a first in history — to include a host of low-carbon technology. Some of the major decisions under the agreement will have an impact on the economy and the public health. … In fact, the Paris Agreement may become the most important legacy of the