The US And The Paris Climate Agreement: 5 Things To Know

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2020

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the landmark Paris climate agreement in 2017 and formally notified the United Nations last year. A mandatory yearlong waiting period ended on Wednesday. Of the nearly 200 nations that signed the agreement, the U.S. is the only one to walk away from its promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. NPR science reporter Rebecca Hersher shares fives things to know.

For additional info and links, check out the episode page.

Email the show at [email protected].

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:04.4	Hello, Maddie Sophia, host of Shortwave.
0:08.0	Hello, Rebecca Hersher and PR climate reporter.
0:10.8	Okay, I'm here to take you back one year.
0:14.3	Honestly, that sounds great. Let's do it.
0:16.0	So one year ago on this very show, you and I talked about the Paris Climate Agreement.
0:21.6	So now it's official.
0:23.3	Yep. The Trump administration has formally told the UN
0:27.9	that the US is pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
0:31.0	The State Department sent a letter to the United Nations,
0:33.9	and the letter said, basically, we don't want to be part of this anymore.
0:37.6	Now there's a one year waiting period before that fully takes effect.
0:41.6	So that was us last year when the one year waiting period began.
0:45.6	Time to make totally sure that the US really wanted to leave this big international climate change
0:51.8	agreement. Yeah, one year ago.
0:55.5	Now the United States has formally withdrawn from the biggest international climate change
1:00.3	agreement in history. And it's a big deal because the US is the second largest emitter right now,
1:06.4	and the US has spouted more greenhouse gases than any other country if you add it all up over time.
1:14.8	So today in the show, five things to know about the US leaving the Paris Agreement.
1:20.2	What it means for the planet, for the country, and what comes next.
1:26.7	I'm Maddie Safiah, and you're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
1:38.4	All right, so let's start with the basics here because honestly, it has been a week.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.