{"id":63549,"date":"2017-06-12T00:18:45","date_gmt":"2017-06-11T22:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/opinion\/paris-agreement-with-the-us-abdicating-its-responsibility-the-leadership-will-be-taken-up-by-others\/"},"modified":"2017-06-12T00:18:45","modified_gmt":"2017-06-11T22:18:45","slug":"paris-agreement-with-the-us-abdicating-its-responsibility-the-leadership-will-be-taken-up-by-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/opinion\/paris-agreement-with-the-us-abdicating-its-responsibility-the-leadership-will-be-taken-up-by-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Agreement : With the US abdicating its responsibility, the leadership will be taken up by others"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Trump\u2019s decision to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change has not come<br \/>\nas a complete surprise given his numerous intimations to this effect, but is startling nonetheless. It is<br \/>\nclearly a spanner in the works for the global project of decarbonisation and not without<br \/>\nconsequences \u2013 both economically and diplomatically \u2013 for the US. Thankfully the resolve among the<br \/>\nother 194 signatories remains strong, with major greenhouse gas emitters including China, Australia,<br \/>\nRussia, India and EU members having reiterated their commitment to the Paris accord ahead of<br \/>\nTrump\u2019s announcement. The following are a couple of high-level observations from us as long-term<br \/>\ninvestors.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>  The questionable economic rationale aside, there is little doubt that this will neuter US<br \/>\nforeign policy further \u2013 we\u2019ve already seen widespread criticism from other governments<br \/>\nincluding a joint statement by France, Germany and Italy underlining that there will be no renegotiation<br \/>\nof the agreement. It is worth noting that only two other UN members \u2013 Syria and<br \/>\nNicaragua \u2013 are outside of the deal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>  The process of withdrawing is not an overnight one and that the earliest the US can formally<br \/>\nleave is 4 November 2020 \u2013 just after the next presidential election. It goes without saying<br \/>\nthat a lot can change over this time period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>  With the US abdicating its responsibility, the leadership will be taken up by others. China has<br \/>\nalready signalled its keenness to take up the mantle. Other countries may also see an<br \/>\nopportunity to get ahead in the race to a low-carbon future.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>  Trump cites \u2018unfairness\u2019 to US business as a key reason to leave, when the corporate world \u2013<br \/>\nincluding much of the fossil fuel industry \u2013 understands the imperative of decarbonisation.<br \/>\nIndeed, it is somewhat ironic that his announcement coincided with the news that a<br \/>\nsignificant majority of US oil giant ExxonMobil\u2019s shareholders voted in favour of increased<br \/>\ndisclosure around the risks it faces due to climate change.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>  Importantly the increasing adoption of lower-carbon energy sources in the US is in no small<br \/>\nmeasure guided by state rather than federal policy \u2013 California being one of the most<br \/>\nconspicuous cases in point. Not to mention the rapidly improving cost-profile of renewable<br \/>\nand storage technologies which is diverting capital away from conventional power sources.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Again, Trump\u2019s decision to break rank with the rest of the globe rests on very brittle foundations,<br \/>\nand will make the already ambitious goal of limiting the global temperature rise to 2% above preindustrial<br \/>\nlevels harder. But the US contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is just over onetenth<br \/>\n(and falling), and the probability of Trump reversing the slide of coal and other polluting<br \/>\ntechnologies is very slim for the reasons outlined above. As stewards of our clients\u2019 capital we take<br \/>\nthe long view, and although we are disheartened by the announcement, will continue to rigorously<br \/>\nassess how the companies we invest in are prepared for the eventual demise of the fossil fuel era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the US abdicating its responsibility, the leadership will be taken up by others. China has<br \/>\nalready signalled its keenness to take up the mantle. Other countries may also see an<br \/>\nopportunity to get ahead in the race to a low-carbon future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1480],"tags":[1655,1651,1437,2087,2068,2054],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63549"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}