Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Javier Milei’s government is considering a proposal for Argentina to leave the Paris Agreement, days after Donald Trump announced that the US would withdraw from the key global climate change agreement.
Although a final decision has yet to be made, two people familiar with the discussions said Argentina it is likely to follow in the footsteps of the US, which would make it only the second country to leave the agreement signed by nearly 200 countries.
Senior officials are studying an internal memorandum recommending an exit, people familiar with the situation said, after the country pulled negotiators from last year’s COP29 climate summit and said it review their international obligations on the environment.
Government officials were trying to talk Miley’s team out of the deal, the people said. An Argentine diplomat said Milei would make the final decision and that “it seems very likely that we will end up leaving.”
A walkout, if agreed, would mark a major blow to global efforts to tackle climate change. The goal of the agreement is to limit the rise in global temperature to well below 2C, and ideally to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
Argentina’s interior ministry’s environment department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The libertarian leader, who denies that humans are the 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 the enjoyment of human beings, and turned it into a fanatical environmentalism where human beings are a cancer that must be eliminated and economic development is little more than a crime against nature,” he said. he said.
on Monday, Trump signed the executive order to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement for the second time, having previously withdrawn during his first term.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.
Exiting the Paris Agreement would require the approval of Congress in Argentina, but Milei often bypassed Congress through emergency decrees during his presidency.
Last year was the hottest on record, and scientists say the world is falling further behind the temperature targets set out in the agreement.
The withdrawal could affect the EU-Mercosur trade deal struck in December between Europe and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, which specifies that the parties can suspend the trade deal if one of the signatories leaves the Paris agreement.
The diplomat said: “Technical staff at the ministry are trying to explain that while Trump can do whatever he wants, there would be consequences for Argentina.”
They also cited potential complications for Argentina’s recently launched bid to join the OECD, which advocates environmental policy standards for members.
Critics have argued that Argentina would also risk losing access to international climate-related financial flows, having received billions in such financing, and could be excluded from global carbon markets in the future.
Countries are due to submit updated climate plans under the Paris Agreement next month, although many are expected to miss the deadline.
