Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement is one of the worst decisions ever for the United States. The U.S. stands isolated from the world with only Syria and Nicaragua to keep them company.

With this decision, the U.S. turns its back on decades of global leadership. While the rest of the world — led by China and India — ready their industries for the future, President Trump tries to stay warm by the dying coal fires of the 20th century. Trump will fail, leaving America last.

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One of the best deals ever made was the agreement between President Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on joint-leadership in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The two largest industrial nations showed the way — the rest of the world followed. But that’s history.

The world won’t wait for the United States. It can’t wait because the threat of climate change is real. Hurricane Katrina, blizzards on the East Coast — all that is merely a prelude for what’s to come if the word fails to act. Worldwide migration flows will increase. Climate change is already a massive accelerant to global crises. Every second, a person is forced out of their home by natural disasters according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The world has only 23 years left until it blows the carbon budget, if it keeps emitting CO2 at today’s pace.

The U.S. economy will be hit worst by the decision to withdraw.

Less than 20 years ago, Germany set out for energy transition or Energiewende as it is now universally known. And we were wrong when it came to the chances of transforming power supply. When I got the bill off the ground as Minister of the Environment and member of the Green Party, it said that we will strive for 20 percent renewables by 2020. I was scoffed at. They told me that the ration could never be higher than eight percent. And yet, by 2015 almost a third of our energy was renewable. We were wrong, but we were right.

The current German administration may be trying to curb the expansion of renewables. But there’s no turning back. Ever since the law took effect, Germans have invested over €150 billion in new electricity generation plants. There’s nothing like it elsewhere in Europe. The result is a strong exporting industry that offered 400.000 jobs at one point and another million in Europe.

The German Energiewende made renewable energy technologies so cheap, China and India canceled several hundred planned coal-fired power plants. Generating energy with wind and solar is just that much cheaper. By now, China is the world market leader in solar cells — not least because the German chancellor is hindering rather than a driving the Energiewende.

World market leader — U.S. industries always strove for that title. With Trump’s decision, it will vanish from the world market for renewable energies, electronic cars and highly efficient technologies. Overtaken by developing countries like India and China. Even Russia, which is more dependent on petrodollars than most, stands by the Paris Agreement. It’s sad to see the once great America belittle itself.

There won’t be a new deal. Trump’s promise to renegotiate is either naive or fake news. If you leave the table (the rest of the world is still sitting at), you’re out. If Trump wants back in — he’ll have to buy himself back in — poker players know that. A return to the climate agreement at new conditions can only be more expensive. The United States already produces more than twice the per-capita emissions of China. And while China has been keeping its emissions steady for the past four years despite their growth rates, American emissions keep rising. Thus, a return to the table will only get more expensive.

Bad decisions happen. Look at German Emperor William I. He saw the car as a passing fad, “I believe in the horse.” History passes these errors in judgment with a smirk. But decisions like these determine whether you’ll be remembered as a leader or a loser. Trump’s decision to withdraw has predetermined his place in history. He will be laughed at.

Jürgen Trittin is amember of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the German Parliament and member of the Green party. From 1998 to 2005, he was Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. In this position, he significantly advanced the German energy transition and played a key role in the negotiations for the Kyotoprotocol and its German ratification.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.