On Thursday, June 2nd, Donald Trump officially announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate agreement. “We want fair treatment, we don’t want other countries and other leaders to laugh at us anymore,” Trump said on Thursday at the White House.

In his withdrawal announcement he also cleverly added, “I was elected by the citizens of Pittsburg, not Paris,” possibly leading a third-party observer to think Donald Trump may not fully understand the Paris Climate Agreement and its near-irrelevance to the citizens of Paris. However, the President continues to make it clear that American citizens, especially its workers, are being taken advantage of, mistreated, and laughed at.

In actuality, his decision to withdraw seems to have much less to do with the actual restrictions of the agreement, as it does his efforts to de-prioritize the world outside of the U.S., with the effects of climate change being procrastinated like a final paper that was assigned at the beginning of the semester.

To Trump’s point of being taken advantage of due to the Paris Climate Agreement, I will refer to the United Nation’s own description of what the agreement asks of its members. “The Paris Agreement requires all Parties to put forward their best efforts through “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. This includes requirements that all Parties report regularly on their emissions and on their implementation efforts.”

If I read a request similar in a syllabus for a class, I think I would assume an easy A as long as I, “put forward [my] best efforts.” The agreement makes itself very clear that while climate change is and should continue to be a priority to the world, with a target goal to keep the global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, there is nothing binding about the agreement other than reporting progress. In fact, out of the only other two countries who refused to join the agreement, Nicaragua and Syria, Nicaragua declined because its officials thought it was actually not doing enough and letting powerful countries off too easily. Most environmentalists see the Paris Agreement as a step in the right direction but nowhere near as aggressive as it should be. So, why is Trump so against being a part of it?

Trump believes we are being laughed at as a nation. While this may be true, it doesn’t seem to be due to our current participation in the Paris Agreement. The agreement has been noted numerous times to be a non-binding step in the right direction. This being true, we are allowed as a country to decide how we want to limit and restrict our carbon emissions. The message Trump is sending by removing us from the agreement is that he doesn’t think the U.S. needs to contribute to lessening climate change.

Sam Miner can be reached at mine0034@stthomas.edu.