Trump: US to pull out of Paris climate deal News
Trump: US to pull out of Paris climate deal

US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the US will no longer be part of the Paris climate accord [text, PDF]. 195 nations have signed on to the deal making it a world-wide effort to curb global warming. Foreign leaders, business executive and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump [official website], campaigned against [CNN report] withdrawal. Trump contested the climate agreement during his presidential campaign in the fall saying it was bad for the US economy. “The agreement doesn’t eliminate coal jobs, it just transfers those jobs out of the United States and ships them to foreign countries. This agreement is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United States,” he said from the Rose Garden at the White House. Trump reiterated his belief that the climate deal was biased against the US saying, “[t]he Paris accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States.” Critics of Trump’s decision worry that the US will now be isolated from global efforts and demoted from being a world power. European Commission [official website] President Jean-Claude Juncker stated that Europe is ready to replace the US as a global climate leader.

According to many experts, climate change [JURIST backgrounder] as a result of global greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most pressing and controversial environmental issues facing the international community today. The Paris Agreement is the world’s first comprehensive pact seeking to reduce carbon emissions and halt climate change. The threshold of 55 parties, making up more than 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, triggering the entry into force of the agreement was reached in October. [JURIST report]. In September US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping formally committed [JURIST report] their nations to the Paris Agreement. These two nations alone are responsible for roughly 40 percent of the world’s total carbon emissions. In May government signatories to the Paris Agreement discussed safeguards [JURIST report] against potential human rights violations which could arise in relation to the Agreement.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Fyodor Dostoevsky sentenced to death

Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky was sentenced to death on November 16, 1849 over his involvement in the progressive Petrashevsky Circle of intellectuals. Dostoevsky and his codefendants were scheduled to be executed on December 22 of that year, but their execution was stayed by Tsar Nicholas I after the execution ritual had been carried out. Dostoevsky was sent to Siberia instead to serve a four-year sentence. Learn more about the mock execution of Dostoevsky.

Canada executed Metis leader for treason

On November 16, 1885, the Canadian government executed Metis leader Louis Riel for high treason in the wake of the "Northwest Rebellion" that had pitted the Metis (descendants of French traders and native tribes) in what is now Saskatchewan against Canadian troops. Although Riel has lately been rehabilitated as an Indigenous francophone patriot of the Canadian West, his trial and execution remain sore points between English and French Canada.

US President Nixon signs Trans-Alaska Pipeline Act

On November 16, 1973, US President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Act into law. In addition to creating an oil pipeline across the state, the Act also quashed all environmental-legal challenges regarding its construction.