India’s decision to sign Paris climate change pact is a major milestone.
Although the US President, Barak Obama announced with much fanfare to join the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the US is likely to fall short of emissions goal, as a study predicts.
The study says to do more than just the bare minimum; else the U.S. will likely miss the emissions target aimed for in the landmark Paris Climate Agreement last year, reports USA Today.
It includes cutting the emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane from power plants and other sources, but it need to make deeper cuts since even if all current and proposed emission reduction plans are not sufficient and even after this, the U.S. will still fall short by anywhere from 300 million to as many as 1.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, the study found.
Here, a bog question looms large that President Obama’s proposed Clean Power Plan to trim carbon emissions from coal power plants and other sources, would become operational or not since it is facing a lengthy court challenge from 28 states and scores of companies and industry groups that begins Tuesday.
To make the matter worse, if Trump is elected, he would repeal the Clean Power Plan.
Though the study that was released on Monday solely focuses on the U.S. emissions, its author defends, saying that it matters since the U.S. is key player in the global fight against climate change.
“It’s true that other nations collectively emit much more than the U.S., but we are one of the world’s biggest emitters, right behind China,” said Greenblatt, the author of the study. “So reducing our emissions will have a material effect on global totals,” he said. “Perhaps more important, however, is that our efforts to reduce emissions can motivate other countries to set similarly ambitious targets.”
Indeed the future of Paris Climate Change Agreement depends on the role of the USA, whether it leads the world to get rid of the anthropogenic sins or not?