Hawaii is in the forefront of the climate change issue — sometimes in a scary way. As was demonstrated in the recent encounter with “king tides” lapping up well beyond the usual high-water mark, this island state is as vulnerable as any to rising sea levels, one of the consequences of what scientists describe as a warming planet.
It is also the most isolated state, and so policymakers have worked to put the islands on the path to greater self-sufficiency through aggressively moving toward renewable energy sources.
And so, when President Donald Trump announced his decision to pull the United States from the 2015 Paris accord on climate change, the disappointment was felt deeply here, followed by a loud cry of protest from politicians and residents.
That leadership, far from being defeated, may have just deepened the resolve to its Clean Energy Initiative. This is also a state that followed its own impulses to embrace green-energy policies and reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, without needing to follow an international banner raised in Paris.
It is disheartening, nonetheless, that the U.S. is seemingly abandoning its leadership position beneath that banner.
In his Rose Garden speech Thursday announcing the withdrawal from the agreement, Trump cited economic figures that bear further examination; some are even easy to reject at a glance.
For example, he cites projections for employment losses that ignore the new jobs an accelerated move toward renewable energy can create. The cost of risks posed by climate change — flooding and other damage from sea-level rise and intensifying storms — have not factored into his calculation.
Most dismaying of all, he has determined not to hear the assertions by business leaders and experts — including one who now works as his secretary of state, former Exxon executive Rex Tillerson — in the cacophony of objections.
They said that business has already begun the move toward renewables and energy sources that burn “cleaner” than the dominant fossil fuels. Coal jobs are not coming back, they emphasize, and for market-based reasons. Cheaper natural gas is already displacing coal, and solar energy companies are already employing far more people than the legacy coal industry.
The president seems driven to deliver on an ill-considered campaign pledge to withdraw from the Paris pact. He seems unmoved by the fact that the Chinese manufacturing juggernaut could surpass America in new innovations that yield jobs of the future.
For its part, Hawaii is motivated to stay the course, as it should. And it is not alone.
A coalition representing three states, 30 cities and a growing roster of universities and businesses is preparing to submit a plan to the United Nations. That document would be a pledge to meet the U.S. greenhouse gas emissions targets under the Paris accord.
It is not yet certain whether the U.N. could accommodate such a document from a non-state actor in a serious way. But if the initiative becomes more than symbolic, Hawaii should consider signing on.
Already a measure sits on Gov. David Ige’s desk deserving of his signature. It is Senate Bill 559, requiring the state “to expand strategies and mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide in alignment with the principles and goals adopted in the Paris Agreement.”
Even if these principles and goals are non-binding — the Paris accord itself is an aspirational document — it is important to make such pledges. Aspirations are critical to the future of this troubled world. The accord represents a global acknowledgement that humans bear a responsibility to leave a healthier planet in trust to future generations.
Whatever happens in meeting rooms of the U.N. or Washington, D.C., when it comes to the duty to “malama ‘aina,” Hawaii is all in.
