The EU’s decarbonisation plan can’t survive Donald Trump

As in a more delirious version of Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office, again.

In a thinly-veiled attempt to mend Beijing’s relations with Europe, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman commented: “Climate change is a common challenge facing all of humanity. No country can stay out of it, and no country can be immune to it.”

Whatever their views on climate change, Europeans and British would do well to realise that decades-long effort to reduce emissions through multilateral deals is over. Continuing on one’s own – after America’s explicit repudiation of the COP framework, and in light of the track record of economies such as China and India – is worse than embracing a cargo cult. It means sacrificing Europe’s prosperity and security in exchange for quite literally nothing.

In 2023 alone, the Chinese economy emitted over 12 billion metric tons of CO2, almost three times as much as the United States and five times as much as the EU.