US President Donald Trump is taking a bold step by issuing 100 executive orders as soon as he takes office. Beyond erasing the previous Biden administration, the Trump administration’s comprehensive reforms or deteriorations encompassing immigration, trade, tariffs, the environment, and energy include withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and declaring a national energy emergency.
The Paris Agreement was adopted by 195 countries at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2015.
The world promised to cooperate to keep the global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius and, if possible, below 1.5 degrees Celsius. To this end, all parties must set national greenhouse gas reduction targets, submit them to the international community, and report on their progress. Although it is not legally binding, the agreement parties work to achieve their goals by pressuring and restraining each other based on the premise of “voluntariness” and “universality.”
President Trump had already announced his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement during his last term. At the start of his second term, President Trump declared a national energy emergency and announced that he would improve the inefficient energy supply of the United States and expand domestic energy production to spread artificial intelligence.
This includes abolishing or reversing overall environmental policies such as expanding oil and shale gas drilling, mandating electric vehicles, abolishing energy efficiency regulations for home appliances, and increasing energy production.
President Trump deserves to be censured for making the already slow response to the international climate crisis even more difficult. However, the reason President Trump can make such a bold decision is not just because he is an unconventional person. He has supporters who support his actions, “little Trumps” who share his views, and there is a social acceptance that “it is okay to do so.”
Even before President Trump announced his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the United States had not reached its target for greenhouse gas reductions. Last year, the international plastics agreement was not coordinated and passed over the year.
Every year at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties, the oil industry and oil-producing countries hold back the phasing out of fossil fuels. In addition, the policy of expanding energy production in the United States is in line with our country’s 11th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand (draft). The only difference is the source of supply: fossil fuel and nuclear energy. Still, both sides claim that more energy is needed to foster cutting-edge industries, including artificial intelligence. We live in this system. Therefore, the world will not be right if we curse one Trump, bring him down, and establish another. We must fight against the structural sins of this era and eliminate the injustice of the world we belong to.
It should be common sense, not an outrage, to sharply respond to the recklessness of breaking standard promises. We should be able to confront acts that break solidarity with stronger solidarity. We should not be discouraged but continue all the practices we have worked on for our common home. We can move forward with hope and love, resisting not with the lesser evil but with what is best.
“To love the oppressor does not mean to tolerate the oppressor’s continued oppression. Nor does it mean to make him think that what he did was acceptable. On the contrary, a good way to love the oppressor is to try to make him stop oppressing in various ways.” (All Brothers, 241)
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