Trump expected to exit Paris deal

Looking for caveats in climate pact: official

WASHINGTON • President Donald Trump is expected t o withdraw t he United States f rom a l andmark global climate agreement, a White House official said Wednesday, though Trump and aides were looking for “caveats in the language” related to the exit and had not made a final decision.

“I’m hearing from a lot of people both ways,” said Trump, adding he would announce his decision “very soon.”

But speculation that the U. S. could withdraw from the Paris climate deal caused ripples around the world.

The European Commission president said that it was the “duty of Europe” to stand up to Trump.

Je a n- Cl a ude Juncker said “the Americans can’t just get out of the agreement,” adding that “it takes three to four years” to pull out.

Juncker went on to say that the G7 leaders “tried to explain this in clear simple sentences to Mr. Trump” at a recent summit in Italy. He said that even though “it looks like that attempt failed” … the “law is the law.”

In a jibe at the U.S. administration, Juncker told the audience at an event of the Confederation of German Employers in Berlin that “not everything that is written in international agreements is fake news.”

The European Union and China, meanwhile, will reaffirm their commitment to the Paris climate change accord this week regardless of whether the U.S. pulls out of the pact, a senior EU official said. Meanwhile, top corporate executives are mounting a last- minute push aimed at persuading the president that the U.S. has more to lose from abandoning the accord.

Appeals have come from such chief executives as Tesla’s Elon Musk, Tim Cook of Apple and Dow Chemical Co.’s Andrew Liveris.

Musk threatened Wednesday to resign his position as an adviser to Trump if the withdrawal went ahead while Cook placed a call to the White House on Tuesday to urge the president to keep the U. S. in the agreement.

Leaving the deal would fulfil a Trump campaign pledge but would anger i nternational allies who spent years in talks that produced an accord to reduce carbon emissions.

Trump faced pressure to hold to the deal during visits with European leaders and Pope Francis on his recent trip abroad. The president and his aides were finalizing the details of a pullout, an official said, insisting on anonymity to discuss the decision before an official announcement.

While Trump currently favours an exit, he has been known to change his thinking on major decisions and tends to seek counsel from a range of inside and outside advisers, many with differing agendas, until the last minute.

A second White House official, who was not authorized to discuss private conversations and also insisted on anonymity, said Trump had not made a final decision on how to proceed.

Trump’s top aides have been divided.

He was to meet later Wednesday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has favoured remaining in the agreement. Chief strategist Steve Bannon supports an exit, as does Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt. Senior adviser Jared Kushner generally thinks the deal is bad but would like to find a way to see if U. S. emissions targets can be changed.

Tr u mp’s influential daughter Ivanka Trump’s preference is to stay, but she made it a priority to establish a review process so her father heard from all sides, said one of the officials.

Nearly 200 nations, including the United States under President Barack Obama’s administration, agreed in 2015 to voluntarily reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to combat climate change. Withdrawing would leave the United States aligned only with Russia among the world’s industrialized economies.

The House Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, said Trump’s move would be “a stunning abdication of American leadership and a grave threat to our planet’s future.”

Trump claimed before taking office that climate change was a “hoax” created by the Chinese to hurt the U. S. economy, an assertion that stands in defiance of broad scientific consensus.

But Trump’s chief White House economic adviser, Gary Cohn, told reporters during the trip abroad that Trump’s views on climate change were “evolving” following the president’s discussions with European leaders.

Hundreds of high- profile businesses have spoken out in favour of the deal, including Apple, Google and Walmart. Even fossil fuel companies such as Exxon Mobil, BP and Shell say the United States should abide by the deal.