First, let’s all understand that the Paris Climate Agreement has very little to add to the business case for global climate agreements. According to most reliable sources, the impact on warming would be in the neighborhood of 0.2% and the compliance waiver for China and India to 2030 would provide a huge competitive advantage with very little likelihood of any effective enforcement. Second, this agreement is really all about global governance and agreement for agreement’s sake. But look at recent history: We terminated the ICBM Treaty of 1972, we refused to be a signatory to the International Criminal Court, and the sky didn’t fall despite warnings from the global internationalist crowd.
Barack Obama could never have obtained Senate ratification of this agreement and he knew it. It was all about appeasing the globalists and the climate change activists and was essentially designed to circumvent our democratic processes. And as for Secretary Rex Tillerson’s appeal to the President based on our need to “have a seat at the table”, as the indispensable nation, we will always have a seat at the table. In fact, with proper follow up, the decision to withdraw will probably reset the entire global discussion and re-establish U. S. leadership on the issue. Trump made the right decision to withdraw and it was really a no-brainer.
