A two-day meeting of environment chiefs from the Group of Seven club of industrialised democracies ended with the U.S. again disassociating itself from a statement underlining the importance of implementing the 2015 Paris deal on curbing carbon emissions.
"Accordingly, we the United States do not join those sections of the communique on climate and MDBs, reflecting our recent announcement to withdraw and immediately cease implementation of the Paris Agreement and associated financial commitments".
"The majority of the people in the United States are deeply committed to the Paris Agreement", Kerry said.
"The positions expressed at the beginning will undoubtedly remain as they are, but ... we definitely made a step forward towards dialogue - aside from climate, there is complete agreement on all the other issues", Galletti added.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni have said the Paris agreement can not be renegotiated, urging their allies to speed up efforts to combat climate change.
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Voters also will be picking between Democratic and Republican candidates in eight state Senate and 15 Assembly contests. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and large donations from billionaire super donors George Soros and Donald Sussman.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt ducked out of a meeting of Group of Seven environment ministers in Italy early on Sunday, leaving after only a few hours to return to Washington, DC.
In fact, the final text doesn't say the Paris accord is the only tool for tackling climate change.
Trump announced this month that the USA would not be bound by Paris targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saying they were unfairly damaging to the American economy and overly generous to India and China. Rather, it says that the accord is "the global instrument for effectively and urgently tackling climate change and adapting to its effects". We need American leadership on climate, trade and peace.
The other six countries in the G-7 Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Japan and Italy all agreed at last month's political summit of national leaders in Sicily to work toward making the Paris climate accord effective.
The U.S. may not always have Paris, but thanks to our leaders, here in New England we'll be fighting until we do. He repeated that there is a new "economic model" to be found in developing clean energy.
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