Climate Change situation in Trump's administration, U.S. still a key player in reducing emissions

Environmentalist and global warning activists were pretty much devastated when Donald Trump came out as the victor of the recently held United States presidential elections. During president-elect Donald Trump's presidential campaign, he had promised that the United States was going to be opting out of the Paris agreement and that he will be getting rid of the Clean Power Plan, which is currently under suspension. If he does believe in his own campaign rhetoric, then it will indeed be bad news for the country's green efforts thus far.

The previous administration had implemented a number of green initiative all aimed at enforcing stricter climate governance to decrease the country's carbon emissions. The United States is currently the second largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, second only to China.

There are several ways that the new administration may worsen the situation including lowering the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or by eliminating federal mandates. Doing away with the work that has been undertaken by the Obama administration seems to be a clear motive for the new administration, as seen by the appointment of the fossil fuel advocate, Scott Pruitt, as the country's new EPA head honcho.

It is not yet clear if Trump would indeed follow in the examples set by the other world leaders in their move to cleaner energy sources. Coal dependency has slowly been on the decline as more and more countries shift to alternative and renewable sources such as solar and wind power. If the world wants to slow the increase of global warming, America need to fulfill its pledge and stay within the Paris limits. Other countries may not necessarily follow the United States in backing out of the Paris agreement, but the country will definitely be a key player in reducing the world's carbon emissions. Over 300 U.S.-based companies have already expressed their desire to continue the previous administration's emission reduction plans.