【China Daily】US faces risk of missing out on next global industry by pulling out of Paris deal

The US faces the risk of missing out on the next global industry, Thomas Friedman said in Beijing on Friday, after Donald Trump announced to pull the country out of Paris pact.

“It’s very sad for Americans that the president took the decision… It’s so breathtakingly stupid. You just can’t even believe that (its) coming out of America,” Friedman told audiences at Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization (CCG).

Trump said the Paris deal disadvantages the US, BBC reported. The Paris deal aims to tackle climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and sets a global target of keeping the rise in the average temperature no higher than 2 C above pre-industrial levels.

However, Friedman believes the decision might slow things down or even have the opposite effect. “I fear that my country is going to buy oil from Saudi Arabia, solar panels from China and completely miss the next great global industry,” he said.

But the market and social forces are powerful enough to pull the US out of misery, Friedman said.

Numerous coal plants have been closed because of natural gas and coal price is going down everyday. Few customers would back up coal businesses.

Friedman believes that cities and states all over the country will stick together and back up the Paris deal, and do their work at city level.

“The real opposition party in the US is not the Democratic Party but the State of California,” he said. On Thursday, California, together with Washington and New York, had spoken up for the deal, committing to meet the emissions goals, CNBC reported.

“Trump consulted everybody in this decision, except scientists.” In fact, he still doesn’t have a scientist to seek advice of, and the credible scientists would not work for him, Friedman said.

On the contrary, Friedman told the audiences that China figured it out really fast that the next global industries would be clean water, power and energy, and is taking its nation in the correct direction.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Thursday that China will continue to work steadfastly to implement the commitment of the Paris deal. (By Liu Caiyu)