Trump's Decision to Withdraw from the Paris Agreement Doesn't Make Any Sense Economically Either
One week before President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, "ThinkTank" host John Iadarola sat down with Mohamed Nasheed, the deposed former president of the Maldives, at the 2017 Oslo Freedom Forum to discuss the looming issue Democrats continue to wrestle with.
"I'm not trying to convince Western governments or Western societies anymore to stop limiting carbon because it is unethical, but because it is financially unreasonable," Nasheed told Iadarola.
Nasheed, 50, had assumed power following three decades of authoritarian rule, and as leader of the world's lowest-lying country, immediately sought to make climate change a top priority. Five years after his ousting, he continues to work toward making the Maldives a carbon-neutral state.
While he has remained critical of American conservatives for their views on climate, Nasheed is happy to see dozens of cities rising up against the Republican agenda.
"The United States is very rapidly, in spite of everything, moving towards renewable energy," he said.
"It is possible to have the same economic outcomes for employment, GDP growth, low inflation through a low-carbon development strategy," he added. "For instance, in the Maldives, to do a breakwater, it costs us $4,000/meter. But you could grow a reef a fraction of that cost and a reef would do exactly the same thing."
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