Merkel predicts stormy G20 climate talks as U.S. balks
German leader says ‘dissent is obvious’ on Paris accord
BERLIN— In forceful remarks before Germany’s Parliament on Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to defend the international climate agreement spurned by the Trump administration, anticipating a difficult meeting of the leaders of the world’s major economies next week in Hamburg.
Despite the withdrawal of the United States, the world’s second-largest polluter, the EU remains committed to the Paris climate accord, she said. But she was blunt about the obstacles posed by American retreat from the deal, which was signed by 195 nations in an attempt to forge global consensus around limiting greenhouse gases.
“Since the U.S. announced that it would exit the Paris agreement, we cannot expect any easy talks in Hamburg,” Merkel said, referring to the Group of 20 summit scheduled for July 7-8. “The dissent is obvious and it would be dishonest to cover it up.”
Without naming him, Merkel appeared to lament U.S. President Donald Trump’s uncertainty about human-induced climate change, saying, “We can’t, and we won’t, wait until the last person on Earth is convinced of the scientific evidence for climate change.”
She said talks in Hamburg must “serve the substance and aims of the Paris accord” and insisted that she would not countenance calls to revise the agreement. She deemed the pact “irreversible.”
Her pledge echoed a rare joint statement from Germany, France and Italy rebuking Trump’s call to revise the agreement, which he said would have paralyzed American businesses and prevented the U.S. “from conducting its own domestic affairs.”
A chasm separates Merkel and Trump — and not just on climate — as they head into the Hamburg conference. The German leader has said she also intends to make free trade and the shared burdens of managing the global refugee crisis focal points of discussions. These principles stand in uneasy relationship with the doctrine of “America first” that guides Trump’s foreign policy.
One of her goals, Merkel said, would be “to send a clear signal for free markets and against isolationism,” adding: “Whoever believes that the world’s problems can be solved by isolationism and protectionism is making an enormous error.”
Merkel, who heads Europe’s most powerful economy, was preparing for the annual summit by hosting European heads of state in Berlin. In her speech Thursday morning, she reviewed the results of the European Council meeting last week in Brussels, where leaders began the protracted process of cutting Britain loose from the EU.
But she looked past that undertaking to affirm the strength of the European bloc — the longevity of which has been tested over the past year — and other multilateral institutions. The long-serving German chancellor was adamant that the business of strengthening the continent would not be bogged down by negotiations over the terms of the British exit.