Icy response to Trump climate move
World leaders unite to denounce US withdrawal from Paris accord
BERLIN — World leaders pledged on Thursday to keep up the fight against global warming as US President Donald Trump announced he was pulling out of the Paris climate accord.
The European Union’s top climate change official said Trump’s decision to leave the Paris accord made it “a sad day for the global community ”.
The EU climate-action commissioner, Miguel Arias Canete, said in a statement that the bloc “deeply regrets the unilateral decision by the Trump administration” but vowed “the world can continue to count on Europe for global leadership”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement “a major disappointment” and said it was “crucial that the United States remains a leader on environmental issues”, according to his spokesman.
Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Twitter that Italy will keep its commitments for reducing emissions, renewable energy and sustainable development.
Russia will not alter its decision to join the 2015 Paris global agreement to curb climate change, despite the withdrawal of the United States from the pact, RIA news agency cited Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich as saying on Friday. “We made the decision to join, and I don’t think we will (change) it,” Dvorkovich was quoted as saying.
French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the Trump decision as making “a mistake both for the United States and for our planet,” while stressing that “we will not renegotiate a less ambitious agreement, in any way”.
Germany’s Angela Merkel, who in the past has been dubbed the “climate chancellor” for her efforts to fight global warming, said her country would “continue to fulfill our obligations under the Paris climate agreement as part of the European framework ”.
Five Nordic countries wrote a last-minute letter to Trump before his announcement, saying the Paris accord was a commitment “to our children”.
“We must reduce global warming,” the leaders of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden said in a short, joint missive. “The effects are already visible in all parts of our planet.”
Among US allies, Japan and Australia also voiced regrets over Trump’s decision and continued their commitment to the Paris Agreement.
The US pledged emissions cutbacks of 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, accounting for 21 percent of an expected global total to the year 2030 under the Paris agreement, think tank Climate Interactive estimates.