The US is the world’s second largest economy
When it comes to climate change, it matters – Dean Baker

The New York Times has an article on the Trump administration’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. The first sentence wrongly describes the US as “the world’s largest economy”. Actually China passed the US as the world’s largest economy early in the decade.

According to the IMF its economy is now more than 25 percent larger than the U.S. economy. It is projected to be more than 50 percent larger by 2024.

This matters because China actually has moved aggressively to adopt clean energy. It is now by far the world leader in the use of solar and wind power and electric car sales. The fact that the Trump administration is determined not to cooperate in efforts to reduce green- house gas emissions is unfortunate, but the fact that the world’s actual largest economy is taking big steps to curb emissions is hugely important.

Source: Real World Econ Rev, 7 Nov 2019 https://rwer.wordpress.com/2019/11/07/the-united-states-is-the-worlds-second-largest-economy-when-it-comes-to-climate-change-it-matters/