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Paris Agreement Clarification: Developing Countries Need Not Make ANY Emission Reductions

By Tom Harris -- October 24, 2017

“President Trump was right to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement. When withdrawing the Clean Power Plan, Pruitt should make it clear that, independent of its other problems, the Paris Agreement violates the will of Congress and is a betrayal of the American people.”

In explaining why he is withdrawing the Clean Power Plan (CPP), Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on October 17 that, under the Paris climate change agreement, “China and India don’t have to take any steps with CO2 [carbon dioxide] reductions until the year 2030.”

In fact, developing countries never have to make emission cuts.

What the climate treaty really says

The Paris Agreement starts:

“The Parties to this Agreement,

  • Being Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC]…

  • In pursuit of the objective of the [UNFCCC] Convention, and being guided by its principles….”

Kyoto Redux? This Canadian Worries

By Tom Harris -- June 9, 2015

“Canada withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol, and the U.S. never ratified it, largely because it lacked legally binding GHG targets for developing countries. So why are developed country governments, those of Canada and the U.S. included, supporting a process that will result in our nations being stuck in another Kyoto?”

John F. Kennedy once said, “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived, and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.”

In announcing the Canadian government’s new greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets on May 15, Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq perpetuated one of the many myths of the climate change debate when she said that Canada will “work with our international partners to establish an international agreement in Paris that includes meaningful and transparent commitments from all major emitters.”…