Trump pulls US out of Paris climate deal
DONALD Trump last night ignored last-ditch pleas from world leaders and withdrew the United States from the Paris agreement on climate change.
The president said that the pact was a bad deal that would “punish” the US economy and cost jobs.
Mr Trump said that he wanted to negotiate a new treaty because the current one is “very unfair at the highest level to the United States”.
The president’s decision has put him at odds with the rest of the world, especially European leaders with whom he has fallen out over his acrimonious G7 meeting last week.
It provoked a storm of criticism from scientists, leading companies and environmental campaigners who said he was showing “total contempt for our planet’s future”.
Former President Barack Obama, who signed the US up to the Paris accord, said that Mr Trump’s decision would “reject the future”.
He said: “The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created. I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack.”
China and all 28 EU nations, including Britain, issued a joint statement saying that they would commit to full implementation of the agreement.
Mr Trump’s decision is arguably his most significant yet as president and created a deep divide between the US and the rest of the world.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden Mr Trump said he was putting “America First” and honouring a campaign pledge to quit the 195-nation pact.
He said that it would cost $3trillion (£2.3trillion) in lost GDP and 6.5 million industrial jobs while allowing other countries to carry on polluting, rendering America a laughing stock.
The president said the Paris deal was a “self-inflicted major economic wound” that “disadvantages the United States to the benefit of other countries”.
Mr Trump said: “As someone who cares deeply about the environment, as I do, I cannot in good conscience support a deal which harms the United States.”
He added: “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”
It was reported Mr Trump will adhere to the process laid out in the agreement meaning it could take four years to withdraw – after the next US election.
The president said: “We are getting out. But we will start to negotiate, and we will see if we can make a deal that’s fair. And if we can, that’s great.”
Mr Trump’s decision puts America in the company of Syria and Nicaragua, the only other two countries who have not signed up to the Paris deal.
Annie Leonard, Greenpeace USA’s executive director, said: “This is disgraceful. By withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, the Trump administration has turned America from a global climate leader into a global climate deadbeat.”