President Trump Announces U.S. to Withdraw from Paris Climate Agreement - Oceana

President Trump Announces U.S. to Withdraw from Paris Climate Agreement

Press Release Date: June 2, 2017

Location: Washington, D.C.

Contact:

Anna Baxter | email: abaxter@oceana.org
Anna Baxter

WASHINGTON – Today, President Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. As part of the accord, sponsored by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, pledged countries agreed to limit the century’s global average temperature increase to no more than 2 degrees Celsius by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Under the Obama administration, the U.S. pledged to cut its emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2025.

Jacqueline Savitz, Oceana’s senior vice president for U.S. Oceans and Global Fishing Watch, released the following statement in response to today’s announcement:

“President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate action spells trouble for the world’s oceans — and for humanity. The oceans have already absorbed massive amounts of heat and carbon dioxide, causing ocean waters to become more acidic. This is bad news for corals, molluscs like clams and oysters, and arthropods like lobsters and crabs. That means not only ecological devastation but a hit to our seafood economy.

Coastal communities and ecosystems around the world are threatened with seas that are rising because of the expansion of warmed waters and the melting of ancient ice caps. Disruption of ocean food chains could increase the risk of hunger for the millions of people around the world who depend on ocean fish for their food and livelihood.

Achieved after decades of intense negotiation, the Paris Agreement finally set the world on a path toward reducing global warming. By undermining this historic agreement—while at the same time turning the U.S. economy away from clean energy and back toward polluting fossil fuels—the President is increasing the risk of ocean acidification and other impacts of climate change. The President’s promotion of offshore drilling could industrialize the Atlantic and possibly the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, moving us in the exact opposite direction from where we need to go.

Oceana will continue to fight for healthy oceans and against the expansion of offshore drilling, which threatens to pollute our oceans and contribute to climate change.”

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