April 27, 2018
Is It Wishful Thinking to Expect the U.S. to Return to the Paris Climate Deal?
In his staunch defense of multilateralism delivered to the U.S. Congress earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his hope that the United States would not in fact leave the landmark Paris agreement on fighting climate change, as President Donald Trump has declared. Macron’s appeal to the need for active American leadership underscores only one of the obstacles to an effective global response to this urgent environmental threat.
Some of these challenges are inherent in the mechanics of a long and overdue transition to lower-carbon forms of energy. Others are due to political decisions made by global economic powers, especially the United States. But the urgency is there. According to the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, the planet can burn about 708 gigatons of carbon dioxide—or about 17 years at current trends—before it reaches a point where it has surpassed the threshold of a 2-degree Celsius rise in average global temperatures that the Paris agreement is aiming to prevent.
Read the Full Article at World Politics Review
More from CNAS
-
Podcast
Energy, Economics & Security / Technology & National Security
Who Will Make Money on AI? With Paul ScharrePaul Scharre joins Emily and Geoff to talk about how commercial markets for AI might evolve and how different market outcomes may mean different types of risks for U.S. nation...
By Emily Kilcrease, Geoffrey Gertz & Paul Scharre
-
How the Pentagon Is Fumbling the Nuclear Energy Renaissance
Commentary
This article was originally published in The National Interest. In June 2024, the Department of Defense (DOD) announced it was stepping back into the nuclear reactor business ...
By Will Rogers
-
Podcast
Middle East Security / Energy, Economics & Security
Will Trump’s Shipping Insurance Plan Work?CNAS adjunct senior fellow Rachel Ziemba joined NPR's Planet Money to discuss the traffic jam of shipping vessels outside the Strait of Hormuz, political risk insurance, and m...
By Rachel Ziemba
-
Podcast
Middle East Security / Energy, Economics & Security
The Economic Crisis of the Iran War Goes Far Beyond OilThe Strait of Hormuz is the tiny bottleneck that could destabilize the global economy. As a critical passageway for crude oil, natural gas, and critical inputs for fertilizer,...
By Rachel Ziemba
