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U.S. leads all countries in reduction of CO2 emissions since leaving Paris climate accord

February 13, 2020 | | Print Article
(White House Flickr)

Despite shrieks of terror from the left about how President Donald Trump’s presidency threatens the existence of Earth and thus mankind, the fact is that under his leadership, America continues to lead the world in total emissions decline.

“The United States saw the largest decline in energy-related CO2 emissions in 2019 on a country basis — a fall of 140 [million tons], or 2.9%, to 4.8 gigatons],” the Paris-based International Energy Agency revealed in a report Tuesday.

The entire European Union, which consists of 28 nations, meanwhile only lowered emissions by 160 million tons total, or roughly 5.71 mt per nation.

These new findings suggest that the shock and trepidation that followed the president’s decision three years ago to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate change accord was misguided, especially when you factor in that every country in the E.U. is still in the pact.

It’s ironic too, because after Trump announced plans to withdraw from the pact, a top E.U. official chose to talk trash about him.

“The Americans can’t just leave the climate protection agreement. Mr. Trump believes that because he doesn’t know the details,” then-European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said at the time, suggesting the president was a know-nothing.

“We tried to explain that to Mr. Trump in Taormina in clear German sentences. It seems that our attempt failed, but the law is the law, and it must be obeyed. Not everything which is law and not everything in international agreements is fake news, and we have to comply with it.”

The sacred ground at the World Trade Center in NYC was lit green to protest the move to leave the Paris agreement:

Yet years later, it’s the E.U. that’s itching to catch up with the United States’ unprecedented reductions in carbon emissions.

America’s massive reductions and the E.U.’s smaller reductions were reportedly driven by the “continued growth of renewables, coal-to-gas fuel switching, a rise in nuclear power and weaker electricity demand.”

The bolded factors are of particular note because of the Trump administration’s promotion of natural gas and its embrace of nuclear technology. Speaking on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum” last summer, then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry explained some of this.

“When you think about the clean energy that America is delivering around the world — whether it’s in the form of liquefied natural gas [aka FREEDOM GAS], or whether it’s in our renewable technologies, whether it’s in our nuclear energy technology going around the world — we are displacing literally tons and tons of old, dirty-burning gas emissions and coal emissions in Europe and replacing them with clean-burning natural gas,” he said.

Freedom gas is the Trump administration’s term for domestically produced natural gas that’s being exported to all corners of the globe.

Around the time last spring that the DOE announced its freedom gas initiative, Carolyn Kissane, the academic director of the graduate program in global affairs at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University, ran a piece highlighting  how “freedom gas” exports would “create jobs,” “contribute to a lower trade deficit” and “reinforce U.S. global leadership and competitiveness.”

All while helping the environment, and all thanks to the president, according to Perry.

“This president does care about the environment, and he’s doing something about it,” he said during his FNC appearance last summer.

Listen:


(Source: Fox News)

As for the rest of the world, they’re not even closing to catch up …

“Emissions outside advanced economies grew by close to 400 Mt in 2019, with almost 80% of the increase coming from Asia,” the International Energy Agency reported.

“In this region, coal demand continued to expand, accounting for over 50% of energy use, and is responsible for around 10 Gt of emissions. In China, emissions rose but were tempered by slower economic growth and higher output from low-carbon sources of electricity. Renewables continued to expand in China, and 2019 was also the first full year of operation for seven large-scale nuclear reactors in the country.”

So to recap, the one country that faces the brunt of criticism from climate change zealots such as Greta Thunberg is leading the world in lowering emissions and promoting cleaner energy (i.e., freedom gas), all while not hurting the economy.

These new findings come amid the left’s continued attacks on the president’s intelligence, which they routinely question because of his criticism of renewable energy.

Two months ago, for instance, the president complained about how wind energy systems in their current form threaten the lives of birds. In response, the left pounced, accusing him of being an idiot.

Yet the facts backed his concerns. Moreover, a new report that dropped just last week revealed that, besides killing birds, wind energy in its current form is also producing massive quantities of waste.

“Tens of thousands of aging [windmill] blades are coming down from steel towers around the world and most have nowhere to go but landfills,” Bloomberg reported.

“In the U.S. alone, about 8,000 will be removed in each of the next four years. Europe, which has been dealing with the problem longer, has about 3,800 coming down annually through at least 2022.”

When you factor in everything, from the emissions reductions seen under Trump’s leadership to his justified criticism of wind energy, it would seem that his more common-sense approach to energy production and environmentalism is superior to the approaches preferred by members of the left …

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Vivek Saxena
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