, Columnist
The Plain Truth About the Climate Accord
Both sides say Trump's decision to withdraw from it is a turning point. Both sides are wrong.
Nothing is different today.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Reactions to President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris accord on climate change are -- forgive me -- overheated. The ACLU is calling it an “assault on communities of color,” for some reason, and environmental activist Tom Steyer says it’s a “traitorous act of war against the American people.” For his part, Trump says that staying in the agreement would have assured us a future of “lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories and vastly diminished economic production.”
Yet both Trump and his critics know that very little in the accord is binding on the parties to it. As a result, withdrawing from it can’t have major consequences by itself.