Faculty Associate Henrik Selin Authors Article on U.S. Withdrawal from Paris Agreement for The Conversation

Henrik Selin, an Associate Professor in the Pardee School of Global Studies and a Faculty Associate at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, recently authored a piece for The Conversation reacting to the Trump administration’s formal notification to the United Nations that the U.S. would withdraw the Paris Agreement on climate change in November 2020.

In the article, Prof. Selin explained the process for leaving the Agreement, whether the United States can rejoin, and the implications the U.S. withdrawal has for the prospects of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change. He notes that being a party to the Paris Agreement is far from the only factor influencing the trajectory of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and that federal and state-level policies, technological development, and the increasingly attractive economics of renewable energy will all play major roles.

“Even after exiting the Paris Agreement, the United States may end up meeting its commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26%-28% below the 2005 level by 2025,” he writes. “But that’s only a fraction of what will be required over the next few decades to constitute a serious contribution toward meeting global temperature goals.”

Read the full article here.