Outrage as Trump calls time on Paris climate accord

PRESIDENT Donald Trump announced yest that the United States was withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, prompting a furious global backlash and throwing efforts to slow global warming into doubt.

In a sharply nationalistic address from the White House Rose Garden, Trump announced his administration would immediately stop implementing the “bad” 195-nation accord.

“I cannot, in good conscience, support a deal that punishes the United States,” he said, decrying the “draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country”.

Trump repeatedly painted the pact – struck by his predecessor Barack Obama – as a deal that failed to “put America first” and was too lenient on economic rivals China, India and Europe.

Trump offered no details about how, or when, a formal withdrawal would happen, and at one point suggested a renegotiation could take place. “We’re getting out but we’ll start to negotiate and we will see if we can make a deal that’s fair,” he said.

That idea was unceremoniously slapped down by furious allies in Europe, who joined figures from around the United States and the world in condemning the move.

“The agreement cannot be renegotiated,” France, Germany and Italy said in a joint statement.

The United States is the world’s second largest greenhouse gas emitter after China, so Trump’s decision could seriously hamper efforts to cut emissions and limit global temperature increases.

Trump’s domestic critics included Obama, who said the United States was “joining a handful of nations that reject the future”.

White House officials acknowledged that under the deal, formal withdrawal might not take place until after the 2020 election.— AFP