WASHINGTON—Touting the measure as the most ambitious effort ever to tackle climate change on a global level, the United States unveiled a plan Monday for the rest of the world to become carbon-neutral by 2030. “Climate change is a serious threat to American livelihoods, which is why we have taken the unprecedented step of announcing that every single other country besides the United States will reduce their carbon emissions to zero over the next 10 years,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a press conference unveiling the Washington Climate Agreement, which had 194 forced signatories representing every other country in the world. “As the world’s superpower, we know that it is incumbent on us to lead the way in the effort to fight global warming, and it’s why we will stop at nothing to ensure that every country besides America ends its dependence on fossil fuels. We commend our ambitious goals for other countries—France, for instance, is going carbon-neutral by 2022, and we’re especially gratified to see that China, under the terms of this agreement, will involuntarily offset all of America’s carbon emissions, which will be able to go up dramatically under this agreement. The Washington pact shows that if we Americans put our mind to it, there’s nothing we can’t compel other countries to do.” U.S. officials added that the plan would likely cause significant issues and economic hardship in emerging economies, but under the terms of the agreement, they didn’t care.

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