{"id":3675,"date":"2017-06-26T09:19:35","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T08:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/doing-business\/?p=3675"},"modified":"2017-10-15T17:13:17","modified_gmt":"2017-10-15T16:13:17","slug":"the-planet-will-survive-the-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/doing-business\/2017\/06\/26\/the-planet-will-survive-the-trump-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"The Planet Will Survive the Trump Administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the months\u00a0since Donald Trump became President of the United States he appointed E. Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency and announced that the United States would withdrawal from the Paris agreement on climate change.<\/p>\n

Both political moves have played well with Trump’s supporters in the fossil fuels business, particularly the coal industry, and has caused outrage across the country and the world. What is true, however, is at least so far, little has actually happened and time will tell where all of this will lead.<\/p>\n

Going slow at the EPA<\/strong><\/p>\n

As discussed in a post<\/a> back in February, Mr. Pruitt strongly believes that EPA went too far under the Obama administration and is committed to rolling back key aspects of his legacy including the Clean Power Plan that effectively will phase out most of the U.S.’s older coal fired power plants.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Scott Pruitt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Soon after taking office Trump ordered\u00a0the EPA to review the Clean Power Plan and\u00a0the that review is currently in process. The good news is that last month, Secretary Pruitt indicated publicly<\/a> that the EPA may end up leaving the plan in place and that the administration had \u00a0a number of other priorities.<\/p>\n

The reality is that changing legislation is a complicated legal process\u00a0and it will take this EPA months if not years to undo the work of the previous administration.<\/p>\n

A Paris Time Line<\/strong><\/p>\n

It will also take time for the United States to leave the Paris accord.<\/p>\n

According to website<\/a> of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, countries can leave the agreement\u00a0only after its first three years and then it takes an additional year. This means in effect that the earliest the U.S. would be able to withdraw is November 4th 2020!<\/p>\n

This will actually be the day after the 2020 presidential election in the United States in which Trump will be running for re-election if he actually manages to avoid impeachment before then.<\/p>\n

The world is not waiting.<\/p>\n

While all of this plays out, other countries, cities and even state governments are simply moving ahead:<\/p>\n