To hear climate alarmist Greta Thunberg tell it, President Trump pulling the U.S. out of the bogus Paris climate pact was outrageous.
“The fact that the U.S.A. is leaving the Paris accord seems to outrage and worry everyone, and it should,” Thunberg said last month. “But the fact that we’re all about to fail the commitments you signed up for in the Paris Agreement doesn’t seem to bother the people in power even the least.”
But here’s the thing, Greta. The United States didn’t fail on its goals. In fact, it surpassed them by a mile.
According to a new report, the United States reduced its CO2 emissions last year more than any other country.
“The United States saw the largest decline in energy-related CO2 emissions in 2019 on a country basis – a fall of 140 Mt, or 2.9%, to 4.8 Gt,” The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in the report released Tuesday. “US emissions are now down almost 1 Gt from their peak in the year 2000, the largest absolute decline by any country over that period.”
“A 15% reduction in the use of coal for power generation underpinned the decline in overall US emissions in 2019,” the IEA said. “Coal-fired power plants faced even stronger competition from natural gas-fired generation, with benchmark gas prices an average of 45% lower than 2018 levels. As a result, gas increased its share in electricity generation to a record high of 37%. Overall electricity demand declined because demand for air-conditioning and heating was lower as a result of milder summer and winter weather.”
On June 1, 2017, Trump announced that the United States would pull out of the Paris Agreement, which put a heavy financial burden on the U.S. and left some of the major carbon emitters off the hook. Some climate watchdogs claimed the pullout would lead to higher emissions, but it turns out the U.S.’s emissions dropped.
On the other hand, China and India emissions grew.
“In China, emissions rose but were tempered by slower economic growth and higher output from low-carbon sources of electricity,” the IEA reported. “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.”
“Emissions growth in India was moderate in 2019, with CO2 emissions from the power sector declining slightly as electricity demand was broadly stable and strong renewables growth prompted coal-fired electricity generation to fall for the first time since 1973,” the IEA concluded. “Continued growth in fossil-fuel demand in other sectors of the Indian economy, notably transport, offset the decline in the power sector. Emissions grew strongly in Southeast Asia, lifted by robust coal demand.”
