NRDC Responds to Withdrawal From Paris Climate Deal

It's the grave mistake we feared he'd make:

President Trump just announced he will pull the U.S. out of the landmark Paris Climate Agreement.

This is the most severe, sweeping attack on our global climate future we've ever seen.

We'll use every tool we've got to stop the president from following through on his reckless promise to abandon the Paris agreement. And we're fighting back against the constant barrage of assaults on our climate and clean energy progress.

But let's cut to the chase. What we really need is a sea-change in Washington. And that means fighting Trump's allies in Congress now, electing pro-environment legislators in 2018, and ultimately, getting Trump out of the White House in 2020.

Keep in mind — Trump alone can't unilaterally cancel the U.S.'s global climate commitments with a stroke of his pen. It could take months, if not years, and the full cooperation of Congress and others, to completely pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

However, withdrawing from Paris will have grave and immediate consequences for the United States.

It will be a job-killing economic blow, chilling investments in our share of the booming $7 trillion global clean energy market that's putting Americans to work around the country.

It isolates us from the international community and abdicates America's leadership on the world stage. Meanwhile, China, Britain, France, India, Germany and nearly every other country in the world have pledged to stay the course on Paris.

Most importantly, it's a massive betrayal of our kids and future generations who are sure to bear the brunt of the climate impacts we're already starting to see today — rising sea levels, extreme droughts, rising temperatures and more.

Your urgent and timely donation to the NRDC Action Fund will help us on multiple fronts:

• Lay the groundwork to remove climate deniers from office. We are identifying key states where we can build a ground game to help defeat vulnerable anti-environment senators. And our eyes are ultimately on building a national movement to replace Donald Trump and return visionary climate leadership to the White House.
• Continue mobilizing to support climate action on all fronts. That means continuing to fight to block Trump's horrendous budget cuts to the EPA and other key agencies that defend our environment ... protect the groundbreaking Clean Power Plan ... stop drilling along our Arctic and Atlantic coasts, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ... and any future attacks on our bedrock environmental protections.
• Keep making progress at the state and local levels. Together, just the states that support the Paris agreement constitute the world's fifth largest economy—which means strong state action will have a real impact. In the last few months, we won important clean energy protections in states like New York, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Colorado and California. And right now, we're supporting new legislation in Nevada that will make huge gains in renewable energy in that state. We'll continue to wage—and win—these battles across the country.

On the Paris agreement, Donald Trump didn't listen to the business community. He didn't listen to his Secretary of State or Secretary of Energy. He didn't listen to the Pope. He didn't listen to his own daughter. And he didn't listen to the American people (70% of whom support staying in the Paris agreement).

Make no mistake: To stop this ongoing assault on our future, we'll need a pro-climate action majority in Congress.
And more importantly, we'll need a president not held captive by the sway of the fossil fuel industry and hardline nationalists like Steve Bannon.

The NRDC Action Fund will be working hard to make sure your voice is heard—from the halls of Congress today to the voting booths next fall.

Thank you for standing with us.
Sincerely,

Rhea Suh
President, NRDC Action Fund