US to leave Paris accord without ‘more favourable terms’

Montreal: The White House pushed back at a European suggestion that it was softening its stance on the Paris climate accord, insisting Washington will withdraw from the agreement unless it can re-enter on more favourable terms.

The remark came as environment ministers from some 30 countries gathered in Montreal on Saturday seeking headway on the Paris climate accord, which President Donald Trump had pulled out of in June.

At the summit, which was attended by a US observer, the US “stated that they will not renegotiate the Paris Accord, but (will) try to review the terms on which they could be engaged under this agreement”, the European Union’s top climate official, Miguel Arias Canete, said.

Canete said there would be a meeting on the sidelines of next week’s UN General Assembly with American representatives “to assess what the real US position is”, noting that “it’s a message which is quite different to the one we have heard from President Trump in the past”.

The US observer was not immediately available for comment and the White House insisted the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate accord without more favourable terms.

“There has been no change in the United States’ position on the Paris agreement,” White House spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

“As the president has made abundantly clear, the United States is withdrawing unless we can re-enter on terms that are more favourable to our country,” she said.

Called by Canada, China and the European Union, the summit took place 30 years to the day after the signing of the Montreal Protocol on protecting the ozone layer – which Canada’s environment minister hailed as a multilateral “success story” by governments, NGOs and ordinary citizens jointly tackling a major global threat.

We are “committed to full implementation of the Paris Accord.

“Everyone agreed that the environment and the economy go together, they are linked.

“You cannot grow the economy without taking care of the environment,” Catherine McKenna said at the end of the summit.

The summit was attended by more than half of the G20 members, as well as some of the nations which were most vulnerable to climate change – from the low-lying Marshall Islands and Maldives to impoverished Mali and Ethiopia.

“Changes are real, extreme weather events are more frequent, more powerful and more distressful,” she told the gathering, pointing at the devastation wrought by storms such as Harvey and Irma that many climate scientists believe are boosted by global warming.

Nearly 200 countries agreed in Paris in December 2015 to curb carbon dioxide emissions with the aim of limiting the rise in average global temperatures to 1.5°C by 2050, compared to pre-industrial levels. — AFP