Trump pulling out of Paris agreement

[Admin]

Something to keep in mind, it isn't all bad news:

U.S. gross greenhouse gas emissions have been declining since 2000 and look set to keep falling, according to the above chart nicked from The Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street team.

This is happening because of “factors outside of any president’s control: slower economic growth following the financial crisis, the shale gas revolution that has replaced a third of coal use and shifting driving habits,” writes Heard columnist Spencer Jakab.

Other pundits agree that market forces — such as higher adoption of green energy, cheaper natural gas — will pull down greenhouse gases more effectively than any international pledges could do.

“If renewable energy is truly the wave of the future, America will be involved, treaty or no treaty, because sensible people will want to buy new technology if it’s any good,” writes Scragged.com blogger Petrarch.

The technology and economics of green energy have each hit a tipping point — making it cheaper and more attractive to investors — and that matters more than Paris deal politics, says MarketWatch’s Tim Mullaney.

Trump’s Paris pullout won’t be a game changer, say markets-minded pundits - MarketWatch

The point is that policies can speed up or slow down this process, given the seriousness of the threat of climate change, speeding up is a lot better..

Then there is the point what effect the US pulling out might have on the efforts of others.