An “abdication of the global responsibility that we all have to humankind” is how Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dion George, described the announcement that the United States was withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement.
It was also “damaging to multilateralism, international law and carefully built trust between nations.”
Among President Domald Trump’s executive orders was a directive to withdraw from the agreement. The order emphasises the need to maintain the dynamism of the American economy.
George said that all countries had a responsibility to act to counter the effects of climate change, recognising that they had had differential roles in creating the problem. The US had a moral duty to adhere to its commitments and to assist less affluent countries in their mitigation and transition efforts.
He did, however, pay tribute to the contribution that the US had made thus far in combating climate change: “We recognise the outstanding contribution made to the fight against climate change in the US by past administrations, states, cities, scientific organisations, civil society, business and ordinary Americans. We applaud the continuing efforts of US citizens and non-state actors to address the climate crisis with the diligence, creativity and imagination we have come to expect. We recall the substantial contribution that previous administrations have made to South Africa’s efforts to address climate change, including most recently support provided by the US to South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership.”
[Image: Democratic Alliance, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=150007909]