Climate Activists Fear Group of 20 May Waver in Support for Paris Climate Deal

Morning Consult discusses the Paris Climate Agreement with Myron Ebell.

Climate action advocates fear the United States’ decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement could prompt other countries to follow suit at the Group of 20 summit this week.

The U.S. has been the only major country to openly oppose the Paris climate agreement ahead of the G20 meetings in Germany, where leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies will address global challenges such as worldwide carbon emissions.

Some conservatives argue the United States would have been the only nation held accountable internally for its promises, while other nations’ involvement would be more symbolic. They say support for the Paris agreement from energy-producing states such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey was less significant because it was less enforceable.

“In other countries, [the Paris agreement], it’s an aspiration when you make one of these commitments. In this country it becomes very quickly a legal obligation,” Myron Ebell, who led the Environmental Protection Agency’s transition team, said in an interview Wednesday. Ebell is currently a director at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The U.S. is the third country in the world to reject the Paris climate agreement, after Syria and Nicaragua. Nicaragua declined to sign the accord because the proposed measures were not tough enough.

Read the full article at Morning Consult.