The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on 12 December 2015. It entered into force on 4 November 2016. On his first day in office of his second term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States, the world’s largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, from the Paris Agreement.
The accord’s stipulations under article 28 require a three-year wait after its ratification to file a formal notice and then serve an additional one year waiting period before the withdrawal can take place. However, this is not the current situation as there is only a 12-month window till the withdrawal can be effected. While the effects of this withdrawal were not yet fully realised in 2017, there was cessation of U.S contributions to international climate finance, including the Green Climate Fund.
In 2017 during the first withdrawal, African nations lost access to nearly $2 billion in promised climate funding. Clearly ,the U.S being a major contributor to global climate funds, plays a crucial role in financing these initiatives This therefore means the continent stands at the risk of losing a lot more because it relies significantly on international climate finance to implement mitigation and adaptation projects.
The signing of this executive order withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement for the second time in a decade may be seen as an open invitation for other nations to scale back their own climate commitments. This will end up impeding the advancement of the global climate by a cascading effect. The situation at hand has the potential to worsen socioeconomic gaps and thwart sustainable development aspirations for Africa.
Leveraging multilateral platforms and partnerships with the European Union, China, and emerging economies can help offset the loss of US leadership by nurturing alternative sources of funding. This will allow African countries to advocate for increased climate financing, technology transfer, and capacity building.