US Officially Rejoins Paris Climate Agreement
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  • Writer's pictureKyle Sooley-Brookings

US Officially Rejoins Paris Climate Agreement


On Friday the United States officially rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement.


Former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement last year. When President Joe Biden was inaugurated he signed an Executive Order to rejoining the agreement.


The Paris Agreement's long-term temperature goal is to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels; and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C, recognizing that this would substantially reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.


Article 28 of the agreement enables parties to withdraw from the agreement after sending a withdrawal notification to the depositary. Notice can be given no earlier than three years after the agreement goes into force for the country.


On 4 August 2017, the Trump administration delivered an official notice to the United Nations that the U.S. intended to withdraw from the Paris Agreement as soon as it was legally eligible to do so.


The formal notice of withdrawal could not be submitted until the agreement was in force for three years for the US, on 4 November 2019. On 4 November 2019, the US government deposited the withdrawal notification with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the depositary of the agreement, and officially withdrew from the Paris climate accord one year later when the withdrawal became effective.

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