Paris climate commitment ‘crippling’ to US growth

TAORMINA: US compliance with its commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change would be “crippling” to growth, the White House said.

During his election campaign, avowed climate sceptic Donald Trump promised to exit the 2015 UN pact on limiting global warming.

But Trump has now said he will make a decision after returning to Washington following the G7 summit in Sicily which started yesterday, at the end of his international tour.

“We know that the levels that were agreed to by the prior administration would be highly crippling to the US economic growth,” Trump’s economic advisor Gary Cohn said.

“The president has told you that he’s going to ultimately make a decision on Paris and climate when he gets back.

He’s interested to hear what the G7 leaders have to say about climate,” said Cohn, speaking aboard the presidential Air Force One.

“It will be a fairly robust discussion on that.

“We know that because we had it today with the French president, we had it with the Belgians, we had it with all the bilaterals we’ve had,” he added.

Trump “wants to do the right thing for the environment.

He cares about the environment.

“But he also cares very much about creating jobs for American workers,” said the advisor to a Republican president who has declared the end to a “war on coal”.

Under President Barack Obama, the US, with world’s second biggest carbon emitter, pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2025. — AFP