President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord Thursday, a major step that fulfills a campaign promise while seriously dampening global efforts to curb global warming.
He said he wants to talk to citizens of "Pittsburgh, not Paris".
Some of Trump's aides have been searching for a middle ground - perhaps by renegotiating the terms of the agreement - in an effort to thread the needle between his base of supporters who oppose the deal and those warning that a USA exit would deal a blow to the fight against global warming as well as to worldwide US leadership.
At the G-7 summit over the weekend, President Trump refused on Saturday to recommit to the Paris agreement, while the six other leading industrialized nations reiterated their support for the accord, which sets out a global action plan to avoid unsafe climate change by limiting global warming to well below two degrees Celsius.
The president argues the Paris climate accords puts an unfair burden on the United States and blocks the progress of building up the coal industry in the United States. "We would find it very hard to compete".
Trump said that he would begin negotiations to re-enter the agreement or establish "an entirely new transaction" to get a better deal for the U.S. But he suggested re-entry was hardly a priority. Trump was pressured heavily by his foreign counterparts during last week's G7 meetings in Sicily to remain in the deal, but his advisers say he felt little obligation to concede to that point of view. "The accord was negotiated poorly by the Obama administration and signed out of desperation".
Trump poised to pull out of Paris Climate Change Agreement
Withdrawing would leave the United States as one of just three countries outside the agreement . Peskov said Russian Federation has yet to see what announcement Trump makes.
Pulling out of the agreement outright would take four years under the standard cooling-off period for new worldwide treaties - the route Mr Trump is likely to take. Even fossil fuel companies such as Exxon Mobil, BP and Shell say the United States should abide by the deal. According to Hua, fighting climate changes is a serious global challenge, as no country can develop without taking the issue into account.
"China in recent years has stayed true to its commitment", said Li, speaking in Berlin Wednesday.
Previous year was the warmest since records began in the 19th century, as global average temperatures continued a rise dating back decades that leading climate scientists attribute to man-made greenhouse gas emissions that trap heat in the atmosphere. While traveling overseas last week, Trump was repeatedly pressed to stay in the deal by European leaders and the pope. Trump met Wednesday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has favored remaining in the agreement.
Ivanka Trump and her allies, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Trump's chief economist Gary Cohn, have pressed Trump to alter the USA commitments to the Paris agreement without fully pulling out of the accord.
But anti-Paris voices, led by chief strategist Steve Bannon and EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, appeared to win out. Senior adviser Jared Kushner generally thinks the deal is bad but still would like to see if emissions targets can be changed.
In a tweet Wednesday morning, the president said only that he will announce his decision on whether to withdraw "over the next few days".
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