THE announcement by US President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Paris Agreement is both irresponsible and unethical.

The US is the world’s largest historical emitter of greenhouse gas emissions and to walk away from the agreement is an abdication of its responsibility which condemns both present and future generations as well as the planet to grave peril and danger.

Trump claims that the agreement is unfair to the US and gives this as a justification for its withdrawal.

On the contrary, it is the US inaction on climate change and its walkout of the agreement that is unfair to the rest of the world.

All parties came together in Paris after very long and hard negotiations to strike a very delicate deal that accommodated the US through an agreement that was seen as rather weak, despite calls for it to be much stronger and more legally-binding.

It is clear that the Trump administration denies climate change is a problem, despite massive amounts of scientific evidence that show that climate change is not a hoax or a conspiracy by any country.

The US inaction and abdication of responsibility will worsen the challenge of limiting temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and pursuing a limit of 1.5 degrees Celcius, that governments agreed to in Paris.

In addition, the Trump administration’s refusal to fulfil its obligation under the Climate Change Convention for the provision of finance to the Green Climate Fund to help poor developing countries address and respond to the adverse effects of climate change is really unethical.

This financial gap must be met by other developed countries.

Our only hope is that the rest of the world, including Malaysia, continue in their resolve to being committed to the Paris Agreement and intensify their efforts at charting a low-carbon future, for the sake of all in the world.

* Meena Raman is coordinator of Climate Change Programme at Third World Network.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight.