Paris accord helps working families

The Paris climate accord helps average working families.

The Paris climate accord wisely left the implementation details to the stakeholders, and then the Kigali Accord addressed a major issue head-on: air conditioners. Kigali’s major accomplishment was getting developing countries, particularly India, to agree to use more climate-friendly refrigerants in their HVAC, which America already uses. And, American leaders were insightful to focus on HVAC, particularly in other countries, as it has an overlarge effect on climate change. In fact, the new book “Drawdown” lists “refrigerant management” as the No. 1 way of 100 suggested ways to reverse global warming.

I think it’s important to understand that man-made climate change is a reality and common “climate change denier” claims have been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked. Citing natural global temperature changes over hundreds of millions of years is not relevant to the fact that man-made carbon dioxide has been proven to be the problem today. It would be like saying that because a stovetop was hot in the past, people today who put their hand on that hot stovetop don’t need to pull their hand away.

Finally, regarding gross domestic product (GDP) projections and its effect on middle class families: because of climate change there is a disastrous 10 to 15 percent GDP drop predicted in South Carolina, and Beaufort County specifically, which would worsen income inequality, as reported in the journal “Science.”

This is a prime example where addressing real long-term problems is better for everyone, including average working American families.

This story was originally published July 6, 2017 at 12:37 PM with the headline "Paris accord helps working families."