美国国家公共电台 NPR U.S. Formally Begins To Leave The Paris Climate Agreement

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

The Trump¹ administration has formally told the United Nations the U.S. is pulling out of the Paris climate agreement. The State Department sent a letter to the U.N. that said, basically, we don't want to be part of this deal anymore. There is a one-year waiting period before the withdrawal² takes effect, and as NPR's Rebecca Hersher reports, today's action makes the U.S. a conspicuous³ outsider when it comes to dealing⁴ with global warming.

REBECCA HERSHER, BYLINE⁵: The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement was designed to be easy to join and hard to leave. In fact, the United States spearheaded the effort to make sure that's how it was. Otherwise, who knows what could happen? Another country could have an election, get a new leader who wasn't so keen on the international agreement and poof - it would all start to fall apart. And since 2015, there has been a lot of political turmoil⁶ in countries like Brazil and India and Turkey and China and Japan. But the U.S. is the only country where the new people in power have decided⁷ to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Andrew Light is a former top climate official in the State Department.

ANDREW LIGHT: That's one of the ironies⁸ of all this. Even though we're the ones who've been pointing to these potential scenarios⁹ for problems with other countries, we seem to be the biggest problem.

HERSHER: Light helped negotiate the Paris Agreement. It took years.

LIGHT: These agreements are just only as good as the commitments from each country.

HERSHER: The American commitment under the Paris Agreement is to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions¹⁰ by about a quarter compared to what they were in 2005. The U.S. is not on track to do that, in part because even though the formal withdrawal has just begun, President Trump began pulling back from the commitment more than two years ago in June 2017.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord.

HERSHER: In that speech, President Trump suggested that the Paris requirements to transition to cleaner energy sources and help other countries do the same would cost too much. Rachel Cleetus works on climate and energy policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an American advocacy group. She says they've got the math wrong. For one thing, you have to take into account the costs of more intense and frequent wildfires and other natural disasters.

RACHEL CLEETUS: What we can't afford is runaway¹¹ climate change. Just look at California right now. Tell me that this is not an economic cost. In fact, the most expensive thing we can do is not take action to limit these types of climate impacts.

HERSHER: As for what comes next, now that the U.S. has formally signalled it's done with Paris, a year has to pass before the withdrawal is final. In the meantime, a delegation¹² from the State Department will still attend the annual meeting of the nearly 200 countries that are in the agreement. It's in early December, and if a new president were to take office in 2021 and decided to re-enter the Paris Agreement, they can.

LIGHT: On Inauguration¹³ Day 2021, you know, they can communicate to the United Nations that we want to get back in the Paris Agreement. It takes 30 days for that to happen, so that's pretty much the easy part.

HERSHER: The harder part will be pushing to get the U.S. back on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before the most catastrophic effects of climate change are inevitable¹⁴. Rebecca Hersher, NPR News.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

3 conspicuous   

adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的

参考例句：

• It is conspicuous that smoking is harmful to health.很明显，抽烟对健康有害。
• Its colouring makes it highly conspicuous.它的色彩使它非常惹人注目。

4 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 ironies   

n.反语( irony的名词复数 )；冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事；嘲弄

参考例句：

• It was one of life's little ironies. 那是生活中的一个小小的嘲弄。
• History has many ironies. 历史有许多具有讽刺意味的事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

10 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

11 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。

12 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

13 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

14 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。