President Donald Trump announced his intention to pull the United States from the global Paris agreement meant to battle climate change, but Detroit automakers aren’t backing down from their sustainability goals.
Both Ford and General Motors responded to the President’s decision to exit the agreement and automakers aren’t changing their future outlooks.
“GM will not waver from our commitment to the environment and our position on climate change has not changed. International agreements aside, we remain committed to creating a better environment,” it said in a statement following the president’s decision.
The Detroit Free Press argues Trump’s decision will be largely ignored by the auto industry in general. Why? Automakers compete in global markets. The days of engineering and developing standalone vehicles for a particular market are long gone. Therefore, any new vehicles developed—even with relaxed regulations in the U.S.—must still meet more stringent requirements abroad in Europe, and more importantly, China.
With the U.S. backing down from climate leadership, China has rushed to take the role—the same country where GM sells over one million vehicles every year; the same market that’s helping to finance Cadillac’s resurgence. GM would be utterly foolish to turn back the clock on progress along with the federal government.
Automakers will continue to go green, Paris climate agreement or not.
Comments
Congratulations, finally, they take a good decision: This management isn’t totally poor…
I would argue that ” America has pulled out of the Paris Agreement ” , isn’t totally true . Our President pulled out , it seems the rest of America’s businesses and some states are in it regardless of the Oval Office decision .
I know symantics , right . California being the 6th largest economy in the world has no intention of stopping their plans of becoming as green as possible and other states and companies seem to care more about the health of our planet than the President .
Meanwhile we have the CEO of Exxon as Secretary of State and a guy hell bent on destroying the EPA running it. #NotNormal
Why do you have so much faith in ANY Gov agency to be able to do anything effectively. It has been proven time and again that the EPA, along with many other gov agencies (IRS, Department of Education to name two of the worst offenders) is criminally incompetent at just about every task it’s supposed to accomplish.
As much as people complain of conspiracies, corruption, and just general retarded policies of gov, I’m always amused how quickly they forget, the true puppet masters of criminal bureaucracy of government is us, the people. Our short attention spans and ignorance of the facts are what enable our government to conduct itself the way it does.
You are right. The current situation with Trump’s appointee’s and Cabinet aren’t normal. For once in a LONG time we have an anti-establishment, anti-professional politician (good) populist (not so good) president in office, who has obvious contempt for the status quo.
If he does something stupid, by all means let him have it. But never forget, anyone who seeks to limit gov power, and keep the yoke of gov bureaucracy and excessive regulation off the citizens back is more likely than not, not an enemy.
So tell me again how the President’s decision to pull out of a purely symbolic accord, that required the US to foot the bill for OTHER country’s poor environmental policies is a signal that the US no longer cares about the environment?
Or how China (one of the world’s most prolific polluters) has moved to the fore-front of the environmental movement?
I’d also like to know how a president with absolutely no record of having contempt for the environment, never mind the leader of a country – that frankly- IS the world leader in successful environmental tech and non-invasive implementation of such technology, is suddenly the poster child for environmental destruction.
One has to be an intentionally obtuse, illogical, mental simpleton to believe that any world leader, never mind the US president is some cartoon villain, hell bent on destroying the earth.
Such pseudo-intellectual propaganda…oops, I meant reporting, is common place in traditional media outlets. I hope it doesn’t become a trait of GMauthority as well.
That is why Americans must go on and better off with the Paris Accord and the “Volt Hatred” that was mentioned by Bob Lutz is, was and always considered and will be FAKE NEWS!
GM is committed to talking and making people believe they are committed to the environment, but not to action. Less then a month after Trump took office the Alliance of Autombile Manufacturers (which represents both GM and Ford) sent a letter to his administration asking them to roll back Obama’s 2025 CAFE standards.