Climate Change -Formal or informal accord?

Let’s try to see the pullout by the United States from the Paris climate pact from a non-political angle. The pact was signed in 2015 by 195 countries, including the US.

The pullout may not be as damaging for business or the climate as some fear or the media suggest. This is because the pact relies on signatories' voluntary cuts in greenhouse emissions.

For all intents and purposes, the pact is a formal show of solidarity by the global community on a global issue. Withdrawal by the world’s second largest polluter will weaken the perceived solidarity but may not mean much in practice if signatories change their standards (which they set for themselves), or tinker with assumptions, or violate the pact, or devise incentives/ disincentives to address the issue.

With or without the pact, climate change may have to depend mainly on peer pressure and bad publicity for the culprits.

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