South Africa reacts to United States of America’s withdrawal from Paris Agreement

23 January 2025

The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dr Dion George, has expressed profound regret over the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Agreement again. The adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, 15 years after the withdrawal of the United States from the Kyoto Protocol, was a victory for the multilateral effort to curb climate change, and reflects the scientific consensus on severity of the climate crisis and the urgency of action.

The Paris Agreement is premised on a common and very strong understanding that we all have a common responsibility to act, whilst noting that nations over time have contributed to the problem differently, and have varied capabilities to respond. “The Paris Agreement represents the most flexible and dynamic approach to addressing climate change. The US played an important role in the negotiation of the Paris Agreement, and the withdrawal of the USA is not only an abdication of the global responsibility that we all have to humankind, but damaging to multilateralism, international law and carefully built trust between nations,” said Minister George.

Historically, the US has contributed very significantly to global emissions, still having the highest cumulative historical emissions, and therefore to global warming and the climate crisis we all face. Therefore, Americans have a pressing moral obligation not only to lead in reducing emissions, but to support developing economies in contributing to the global effort, and to provide support to poor countries experiencing the impacts of climate change. The United States has committed to do so, most recently at COP 29, and its recently communicated mitigation target for 2035. It appears now that these commitments will not be upheld. We hope that this is not the case.

The United States has been a leader in both the science of climate change and in technological innovation underpinning the global response to climate change. We recognise the outstanding contribution made to the fight against climate change in the US by past Administrations, states, cities, scientific organisations, civil society, business and ordinary Americans. We applaud the continuing efforts of US citizens and non-state actors to address the climate crisis with the diligence, creativity and imagination we have come to expect. “We recall the substantial contribution that previous Administrations have made to South Africa’s efforts to address climate change, including most recently support provided by the US to South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership. We therefore urge the current Administration to take its commitments under international law seriously, and carefully consider the ramifications of its intended withdrawal from the Paris Agreement,” said Minister George.

South Africa has full confidence in and reiterates its unwavering commitment to the realization of the goals set out in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement. We must and will seize this moment to innovate and drive forward sustainable solutions. The global effort to curb climate change and address its impacts cannot be put on hold. There is an urgent need for action. We remain hopeful that the momentum of the collective effort to address climate change will only accelerate.

The international community regards climate change as the single biggest threat to wellbeing, health and socio-economic development currently facing humanity. Its impact is widespread, unprecedented and place a disproportionate and unjust burden on the poorest and most vulnerable in our country, our continent and globally. In 2024 the world breached for the first time the critical threshold of 1.5 °C of global warming, signaling the urgency of immediate and strong climate action to avoid increasingly dangerous climate change impacts.

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