Bloomberg: Trump’s Big Paris Mistake

By refusing to confront the growing and many risks associated with climate change, Donald Trump is breaking a vow to run the country like a business. “Any rational, responsible business leader, faced with an existential threat to his enterprise, would take steps to manage the risk,” argues a Bloomberg editorial. Rising seas threaten the tourism industry, high temperatures and droughts threaten agriculture; wildfires, flooding and erratic weather pose challenges for the insurance and most other industries. The Paris Accord established a global target to keep the atmosphere from warming by 2 degrees Celsius; nearly all countries agreed to measure their progress and take steps to reduce reliance on coal and other fossil fuels. The editorial points out that solar, wind and other renewable energies increasingly create jobs at a higher rate than coal or oil businesses. “Thankfully, as cities, states and businesses take action – and as coal is increasingly priced out of the energy market – emissions in the U.S. are falling steadily (though not as much as they would with the Clean Power Plan),” the editorial concludes. “And India and China are likely to reduce global carbon emissions by 2 to 3 billion tons more than they’d anticipated just last year.” Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Accord may galvanize the globe, along with sizable numbers of US citizens and businesses, to combat climate change on their own. – YaleGlobal