President Obama’s lead climate negotiator said Friday that it would be “hugely disruptive” for the next president to pull out of the agreement made in Paris last month.
“I don’t see any new president having that inclination” because of the unbelievable consequences it would have for U.S. standing globally, said Todd Stern, senior climate negotiator for the State Department, speaking Friday at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Despite the rhetoric coming from Republicans and others opposing the agreement, Stern said removing the U.S. from the agreement would be a “hugely disruptive thing to do in terms of U.S. standing” and credibility. “I hear all the rhetoric, [but] I don’t think that would happen.”
“I think it would surprise me a lot to see any new president actually try to walk all the way back from what we agreed to,” Stern said.
He said it would be “unbelievably consequential” for the next president to do that.
The Paris agreement was codified on Dec. 12 among 196 countries in a non-binding deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to stop the climate from warming above 2 degrees Celsius. Many scientists blame the manmade emissions for warming the planet’s average global temperature, resulting in more erratic weather patterns, droughts and flooding.
Stern reiterated the administration’s position that the agreement is non-binding in nature, and does not require ratification by the Senate.
“That doesn’t mean that we won’t hear … from friends on [Capitol] Hill” about the need for the agreement to undergo congressional scrutiny. He said that since the deal was agreed to they haven’t heard much from Congress on the matter.
