Prospects for the Paris climate accord, hailed by the American left as historic and game-changing, continue to look worse and worse.
As a nonbinding agreement, the Paris climate accord’s enforceability was already tenuous. Now, with the election of climate-change skeptic Donald Trump, diplomats meeting in Morocco are in full panic mode, with the New York Times describing them as “shellshocked.”
As negotiators met in Marrakesh, Morocco, this week, the International Energy Agency called into question just how effective the climate pact would be, the New York Times reports:
…. the agency’s estimates also showed that the result of those reductions was not likely to keep the temperature increase beyond preindustrial levels “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, as hoped. Instead, the report’s authors estimated, meeting the national commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions would still allow temperatures to rise 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100.
Meeting the most ambitious temperature goal discussed at the conference would be next to impossible, the report stated: “The transformation required for a reasonable chance of remaining within the temperature goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius is stark.”
As the Washington Post noted this week, both Barack Obama and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have urged Trump to stick to the climate agreement.