US to leave climate pact if no new terms are reached

NEW YORK (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser said at a United Nations meeting on Monday that the United States is standing by its plans to abandon the Paris climate pact unless there is a renegotiation more favorable to Washington, a step for which the international community has little appetite.

Trump in June announced that the United States would withdraw from the landmark 2015 accord, saying it would harm US industries, cost US jobs, weaken American national sovereignty and put the country at a permanent disadvantage to other nations. He also raised the possibility of renegotiating it.

“We made the president’s position unambiguous, to where the president stands, where the administration stands on Paris,” Gary Cohn, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters after an informal breakfast meeting that also included ministers from a dozen countries and the European Union on the sidelines of the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders.

Trump told French President Emmanuel Macron in a separate meeting the agreement was unfair to the United States but looked forward to discussing the issue further, said Brian Hook, director of policy planning at the US State Department.

“He is ... open to a number of different approaches that properly balance protecting the environment and protecting American workers and protecting economic growth,” Hook said. “There are obviously many different ways to reach an agreement around that.”

Cohn, who is overseeing the issue for Trump, declined to elaborate on terms that the United States would consider suitable to remain in the accord. A White House official said the breakfast meeting included representatives from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico and South Africa, as well as the EU.

Cohn said the discussion was “very constructive” and the “mood was good,” adding, “Everyone wants to work together.”

Another White House official said: “We are withdrawing from the Paris Agreement unless we can re-engage on terms more favorable to the United States. This position was made very clear during the breakfast.”

A European official at the breakfast told Reuters Cohn made the same points on the US position that he made publicly but with a more positive, open tone. The official said Cohn indicated that the conditions that would keep the United States in the accord did not exist yet.