Javier Milei wants to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement

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Javier Milei’s government is considering a proposal for Argentina to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, days after Donald Trump announced the US would withdraw from the world’s most important climate change agreement.

A final decision is still pending, said two people familiar with the discussions Argentina is expected to follow in the footsteps of the USA and become only the second country to withdraw from the agreement signed by almost 200 nations.

Senior officials are reviewing an internal memo recommending an exit, people briefed on the situation said, after the country withdrew negotiators from the COP29 climate summit last year and said it had done so Reassessing its international obligations on the environment.

Officials tried to dissuade Milei’s team from withdrawing from the agreement, it said. An Argentine diplomat said Milei would make the final decision and it was “very likely that we will end up leaving.”

If a withdrawal is agreed, it would be a major blow to global efforts to combat climate change. The agreement aims to limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C and ideally to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

The environment department of Argentina’s Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The libertarian leader, who denies that humans are a cause of climate change, condemned the global environmental movement in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday.

“Wokeism has perverted the basic idea of ​​preserving the environment for human enjoyment and transformed it into a fanatical environmentalism in which man is a cancer that must be eliminated and economic development is little less than a crime against nature.” , he said.

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement for the second time, having previously withdrawn during his first term. No other country has left the 2015 agreement.

Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement in Argentina would require congressional approval, but Milei often bypassed Congress through emergency decrees during his presidency.

Last year was the hottest year on record. Scientists say the world is increasingly falling away from meeting the temperature targets set in the agreement.

A withdrawal could affect the EU-Mercosur trade agreement reached in December between Europe and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, which stipulates that the parties can suspend the trade deal if one of the signatories leaves the Paris agreement.

One diplomat said: “The technical staff at the ministry is trying to explain that while Trump can do whatever he wants, there would be consequences for Argentina.”

They also cited possible complications for Argentina’s recently launched bid to join the OECD, which advocates for environmental standards for its members.

Critics argued that Argentina also risks losing access to climate-related international financing streams after receiving billions in such funding and that it could be excluded from global carbon markets in the future.

Countries must submit updated climate plans next month under the Paris agreement, although many are expected to miss the deadline.