Syria is going to sign the Paris climate deal, leaving the U.S. as the only non-signatory


When President Trump announced in June his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the global pact to limit carbon emissions in an attempt to slow climate change, he put America in the company of just two other non-signatory nations: Syria and Nicaragua.
Nicaragua initially rejected the deal because it was not strict enough but in October added its name to the list of signatories. On Tuesday, Syria announced it too will ratify the agreement at a climate summit taking place in Germany this week.
This leaves the U.S. as the sole nation not participating in the pact — yes, even isolated, coal-reliant North Korea has joined. In fact, Pyongyang condemned Trump's decision to withdraw in the regime's typically dramatic language, calling it "the height of egotism and moral vacuum."
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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