If, as seems likely, Trump pulls out, I hope that his announcement is followed by a parade of other countries announcing their continuing commitment. Some of the developing countries are on track to exceed their commitment.
In addition, US tech companies need to make clear that they are still every bit as committed as they were last year, when they had a Secretary of State who reached out to them rather than to Exxon! In addition, I would expect that Jerry Brown will lead California in continuing its efforts. I remember when he tweeted that under his leadership the CA economy, moving to clean energy has done far better than Texas, which has fought it. I hope the New England governors recommit to their goals - which might carry weight if Phil Scott and Charles Baker - Republicans representing VT and MA - join in. John McCain has already been on record that Trump should not do this.
I think the UN is correct that action is unavoidable on the part of the world. Momentum should continue, especially as people from scientists to Kerry and Gore argued, it is true that the costs of fighting climate change have become significantly lower. India has announced that they will not build a large number of planned coal power plants - not because of their UN commitment which did not assume that - but because even at this point the cost for solar energy is lower than coal energy. This without even tacking on a cost for the damage coal does.
I think that the Paris Accord - even if Trump pulls out - will be seen as a turning point because in the year between when the agreement was made and Trump taking office, the market signalled that this was a sector where a huge new market could create gains for anyone who finds a better way to do things. I hope we are at or near the point where the market alone will drive some of the changes needed.
This is NOT to say that this is not a devastating loss and harmful. It makes it harder to achieve a goal that was daunting to begin with. It also is very damaging for the United States. I wonder if part of it is Trump's anger that the Europeans did not treat him as Saudi Arabia did.
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