The United States on Monday began the process of formally withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, following through on President Donald Trump's pledge to exit a deal he has called "unfair" to his country.
"The United States submitted formal notification of its withdrawal to the United Nations. The withdrawal will take effect one year from delivery of the notification," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. That would mean the U.S. pullout coming around the time of the U.S. presidential election.
The move by the United States, the world's second-largest carbon dioxide emitter, comes amid a surge in climate protest movements around the world partly spurred by Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg, who made a speech at the U.N. climate summit in September.
[Receding glacier due to global warming in Patagonia: Getty]
The landmark accord was adopted in December 2015 at a U.N. conference on climate change in Paris to create a long-sought framework to involve every country in reining in greenhouse gas emissions.
But in June 2017, Trump announced his decision to leave the accord, which was negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, asserting that it imposes "unrealistic targets" on the United States for reducing carbon emissions while giving countries like China, the world's largest CO2 emitter, "a free pass" for years to come.
As member parties were only allowed to withdraw from the Paris accord three years after Nov. 4, 2016, the date it entered into force, the Trump administration had to wait until Monday to take the step.
In the statement released Monday, Pompeo reiterated Trump's position that the agreement would impose an "unfair economic burden" on American workers, businesses and taxpayers.
[Beach in Maldives in November 2017]
Pompeo, meanwhile, pointed to progress made by the United States on climate issues, saying that its net greenhouse gas emissions dropped 13 percent from 2005 to 2017, even as its economy grew over 19 percent.
"We will continue to work with our global partners to enhance resilience to the impacts of climate change and prepare for and respond to natural disasters. Just as we have in the past, the United States will continue to research, innovate, and grow our economy while reducing emissions and extending a helping hand to our friends and partners around the globe," he said.
The Paris Agreement, the successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, aims to keep rising global temperatures to "well below" 2 C higher than preindustrial levels, so as to limit the occurrence of droughts, floods, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and other results of global warming.
More than 180 members have ratified the convention so far.
There remains a possibility that the United States will join the agreement again if Trump is defeated in the presidential election on Nov. 3 next year. Major Democratic presidential candidates have been supportive of the Paris Agreement.
