Visualisation of New York City's daily carbon emissions. Credit: Carbon Visuals/Flickr. Some rights reserved.On June 1, 2017 President Trump announced that the US will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. The reason he cited for this decision was that the deal negotiated by his predecessor in 2015 was unfair to the country and that it imposes unacceptable financial economic burdens.
In the days following this announcement, many commentators put forward convincing arguments and figures on how the US would actually benefit from preventing the catastrophic impacts of climate change and how a transition to renewable energy would in the long run create more jobs than those lost in polluting sectors, such as coal mining.
However, it is undeniable that certain costs will be inherent in the implementation of the pledges made by the US at COP21. For instance, the energy transition is expected to be faster in developed countries as emerging economies will be allowed to have their use of fossil fuels peak at a later date. And there is an expected transfer of funds from developed to developing countries through the Green Climate Fund to the tune of USD 100 billion annually, expected to increase further after 2025.
