US President Trump announced that he wants to leave the Paris Climate Agreement. "It will not substantially hamper global climate progress if the USA quit the Paris Agreement, but it will hurt the American economy and society alike," comments Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, member of the Advisory Council on Global Change for the German government, and chair of the High Level Panel on Decarbonisation Pathways for the European Commission. China and Europe have become world leaders on the path towards green development already and will strengthen their position if the US slips back at the national level. Innovative states such as California, the world's sixth largest economy, will keep going for climate action, however. The Washington people around Trump hide in the trenches of the past instead of building the future. They fail to recognize that the climate wars are over, while the race for sustainable prosperity is on."
"China and Europe have become world leaders on the path towards green development already and will strengthen their position if the US slips back at the national level", says Schellnhuber. "Innovative states such as California, the world's sixth largest economy, will keep going for climate action, however. The Washington people around Trump hide in the trenches of the past instead of building the future. They fail to recognize that the climate wars are over, while the race for sustainable prosperity is on."
