Environmentalists are troubled with Trump’s decision to dismiss the importance of climate change. Myron Ebell, the Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy and a member of Mr. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency transition team, declared that the President would soon withdraw from Barack Obama’s agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emission.

During the presidential election, Trump was famously known to call climate change a hoax invented by the Chinese. He claimed, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”

Throughout his presidential campaign, he has promised to repeal the importance of climate change and defund all money spent on aiding United Nation’s (UN) Paris Agreement in maintaining a sustainable environment and clean atmosphere around the world.

“I expect Donald Trump to be very assiduous in keeping his promises,” Ebell said. Within Trump’s first 100 days in power, he has lifted the restrictions on fossil fuel exploration on public land.

The Paris Agreement unites all nations in the effort to combat climate change by “stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference”.

129 countries, including the U.S and China, ratified the agreement.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was confronted with the issue of global warming during a recent Senate confirmation hearing. Tiller explained during the hearing that “The increase in the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are having an effect.” However, he later contradicted his report on the effects of human activity on climate change when he stated, “Our ability to predict that effect [of climate change] is very limited.”

As it can be seen, the issue of climate change is plainly sidestepped by the government. Trump administration cannot discontinue the process of fixing climate change; it can only slow the efforts that have been made to combat climate change. Companies, cities, and states in the U.S. are sensible to the effects of climate change and are leading the way of building beneficial environmental policies. In 2014, 700 companies took part in the global organization We Mean Business, and have committed to policies such as 100 percent renewable energy, putting a price on carbon, suspend deforestation, and report their carbon emission annually. Eight cities in the U.S. founded the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance, and with ambitious efforts, aim to cut emissions by 80 percent by 2050. States, particularly California, drafted AB 32, a legislation without a federal mandate that includes strict policies to promote renewable energy, zero-emission vehicles, and low-carbon fuel.