Much has been made of the fact that Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement makes the United States an international pariah and a business disaster, that it will undermine national security, that his excuses were a series of flat-out lies, and that his real reason was the typical pettiness of his tiny, fragile ego, but the degree to which Trump is Making America Worst cannot be overstated. With Trump, the United States is now one of three countries not signed on to the Paris Agreement.
But it’s even worse. Nicaragua didn’t sign on because it believes the Agreement isn’t aggressive enough. Nicaragua is on track to beat the Agreement’s targets.
“The decision was made that we had to begin shifting toward renewable energy,” Gabriel Sánchez, who works for the business promotion agency ProNicaragua, told NPR. “A set of policies was put in place that would allow renewable energy projects to be developed in Nicaragua.”
By 2015, renewables were generating about half of Nicaragua’s electricity, but government officials say the number is on track to reach 90 percent by 2020, according to the World Bank. Renewables constitute 13 percent of the United States’ energy production.
Which means that in not being party to the Agreement, Trump stands alone in the world with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, who has been too busy massacring his own people to sign on. It’s Trump and Assad against the world.