While the decision by President Trump to abandon the Paris Agreement is disastrous for the planet, other nations must not give up hope

While news relating to climate change rarely attracts international attention, the decision by Donald Trump to abandon the Paris Agreement as part of his “America First” policy has drawn condemnation from every major politician on earth.

The result may be a boon to the coal and oil and gas sector but fails to take account of the fact that enormous amounts of wealth and job creation is taking place in the renewable energy sector, with the USA now losing ground to China as the renewable revolution takes place.

The withdrawal of the USA from the Paris Agreement will not take full effect until 2020 and hence the USA will still be obliged to meet targets that aim to limit global temperature increases to no more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

The danger of feedback loops mean that while 2°C was not ideal, it was some measure towards preventing total collapse of civilisation as we aim to transition away from the fossil fuel age and towards clean forms of energy that benefit consumers, the planet and our air quality.

Despite the devastating signal the decision by the USA sends to the world there is no reason why the renewable energy sector as a whole should be excessively downbeat as installed capacity grows on a year on year basis at a staggering rate while both the developed and developing world make the transition towards low carbon economies.