Last week, the Trump administration officially started the process to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, the 2015 landmark agreement where nearly 200 countries agreed to reduce their carbon emissions in light of the world’s climate crisis.
Leaving the accord is a big deal, not only environmentally, but also symbolically, especially as the United States is now one of the only countries that is not part of the agreement. But what does it mean for the planet? Is all hope lost for fighting climate change?
Practically, it means that all levels of government have to work across the aisle to keep pushing local, statewide, and federal climate policies forward.