news
campusreview.com.au
Trump’s
apathy angers
academics
The US decision to pull out
of the Paris Agreement has
caused strong responses from
Australian climate researchers.
By Loren Smith
T
he Australian university community
has coalesced to tongue-lash
US President Donald Trump,
following his announcement that the US
will withdraw from the Paris Agreement,
commonly known as the Paris climate
accord.
Signed by almost 200 UN member
countries in 2015, only Syria and Nicaragua
refused to join the deal. It committed
nations to attempt to limit global warming
to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Currently, the world temperature is 1.05°C
above the pre-industrial average.
Although withdrawal can only be
effected in four years, Trump’s declaration
sends a clear, isolationist message:
his administration isn’t bothered by
climate change.
This not only bucks global trends, but
US ones: several states, like California,
have voiced resistance to his decision
and signalled their intention to continue
to reduce carbon emissions and invest in
renewable energy sources.
Academics, too, have joined the global
chorus of ire. The following is a sample of
reactions from our home soil:
“The world has spent the last 2.5 decades
looking for climate leadership. Every time
it has backfired. Both the Kyoto Protocol
and Paris Agreement were watered down
for the US. This is now a chance to forget
about the US and for a critical mass of
leaders to move ahead without them.
“The world should now look for the
response of the EU and China.”
Dr Luke Kemp, researcher in international
climate change negotiations and lecturer at
the Australian National University
“Trump’s decision to withdraw from
the Paris accord is not based on scientific
evidence or on the economic interests
of the US, but on the political imperatives
of the culture wars being waged by the
political right in the US, imperatives that led
to his nomination and election.”
Professor John Quiggin, Australian laureate
fellow in economics at the University of
Queensland
“Regardless of whether the US is part
or not of the Paris Agreement, its current
downward emissions trajectory is unlikely to
change significantly, given it is driven by the
economics of falling prices and abundance
of natural gas and renewable energies.”
Pep Canadell, CSIRO research scientist and
executive director of the Global Carbon
Project
“President Trump, in withdrawing the US
from the 2015 Paris accord, is effectively
signing the death warrant for millions
who will suffer and die from the effects of
additional climate change attributable to
this reckless decision.”
Dr Liz Hanna, president of the Climate &
Health Alliance and an honorary senior
fellow at the Climate Change Institute,
Australian National University
“The US is responsible for more than
a quarter of the carbon dioxide that has
been added to our atmosphere since the
Industrial Revolution.
“Trump’s announcement shirks the
responsibility that the US holds in the
climate problems that now face the entire
world.”
Associate professor Nerilie
Abram, Research School of Earth Sciences,
Australian National University
“The biggest damage was done not to
global climate action, but to America’s
influence and standing in the world
community.”
Associate professor Frank Jotzo, director of
the Centre for Climate Economics & Policy,
Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian
National University
“Trump is a B-grade disaster movie. The
Paris accord will survive him because it
has to. As a species, it took us 177 years to
become so economically carbonised that
our lives literally depend upon it today. But as
the countdown continues, we now have
only 33 years to scale back to zero.”
Dr Paul Read, senior research fellow at the
Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute,
Monash University
“President Trump’s announcement …
that he will withdraw the US from the Paris
climate agreement comes as no surprise.
After all, this is the man who claimed that
climate change was a hoax created by the
Chinese.”
Dr Christian Downie, research fellow and
higher degree research convenor, School
of Regulation and Global Governance,
Australian National University ■
3