5 reasons why Trump’s “Paris Agreement is very unfair” argument does not hold. 

At the end of this week, the G7 countries meet in Chalevoix, Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s initial ambition to advance climate action within the seven biggest world economies clashed with Trump’s protectionist “America First” agenda. So in the end, gender equality emerged as the “top priority” of Canada’s G7 Presidency. Already last year, the G7 environment ministers’ statement mentioned that the US did not join other G7 members in reaffirming a commitment to Paris.

When Trump announced that the US would pull out of the Paris Agreement, shortly after last year’s G7 Summit, his justification was that the agreement was “very unfair, at the highest level, to the United States”. A comparison of how the G7 countries perform in their transition towards a low-carbon economy by the international partnership Climate Transparency however shows that this argument does not hold. In fact, according to the Brown to Green Report other G7 countries take more action and provide higher amounts of climate finance than the US.

The Brown to Green Report is the most comprehensive independent assessment of the climate performance of G20 countries comparing country action in the areas of emissions, decarbonization, policy performance and financing the transition. Produced by experts from more than 13 organisations from 10 different G20 countries it assesses data from a global perspective.

1.The US has the second highest greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the G7 after Canada with a decreasing trend.

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS PER CAPITA

2. The US has one of the lowest shares in renewables in total primary energy supply among G7 countries.

SHARE AND TREND OF RENEWABLES IN TOTAL PRIMARY ENERGY SUPPLY (2009-2014)

3. The US provides the second highest amount of fossil fuel subsidies among G7 countries.

FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES

4. The US is among the G7 countries with the highest spending of public finance for brown energy.

PUBLIC FINANCE IN MANY COUNTRIES SUPPORT BROWN ENERGY RATHER THAN GREEN

5. Japan, France, Germany and the United Kingdom are providing tremendously higher amounts of international climate finance relative to GDP than the US.

CLIMATE FINANCE AS PERCENTAGE OF GDP

Find out more about the performance of G7 countries in the transition to low-carbon economy and read our article “G7 countries’ transition towards a low-carbon economy