Your Country Is Flooding? Tough Luck
What the U.S. Departure Means for the Paris Agreement
Twenty years ago, Senate members gathered to vote on Resolution 98, colloquially known as Byrd-Hagel. Its 700-odd words could be distilled into two ideas: The U.S. shouldn’t sign any international climate agreement likely to harm its economy, and developing countries should receive no special treatment. Ninety-five senators voted in favor, none against.
Byrd-Hagel is remembered mainly for keeping the U.S. out of the Kyoto Protocol, which President Bill Clinton signed the following year but never submitted to Congress for ratification. But it also codified a view that Donald Trump embraced from the Rose Garden on June 1, when he railed against not only the Paris Agreement but also the Green Climate Fund, a companion program to help poorer countries cope with global warming. To Trump, it’s a scam.