Trump to Pull U.S. Out of Paris Climate Deal
The U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate deal, President Donald Trump announced Thursday, fulfilling a key campaign promise but putting at risk global efforts to deal with the effects of climate change.
At a ceremony in a sweltering White House Rose Garden Thursday, Trump said the accord did little to help the environment and unfairly punished the U.S. by holding it to tougher standards than other top polluters.
“The Paris Climate Accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries,” Trump said.
The move comes despite passionate protests from world leaders and entrepreneurs, many of whom personally pleaded with the president in recent days to stay in the climate deal.
In the end, Trump rejected the accord as an attempt by “foreign lobbyists” who want the U.S. “tied up and bound down” so that their countries can have the “economic edge.”
The deal, reached in 2015, set goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting the rise in global temperatures. It was signed by 195 countries.
Trump said he would like to immediately begin talks to either re-enter the accord or “an entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States.” However, many world leaders “firmly believe” the Paris agreement cannot be renegotiated.
In a statement, former president Barack Obama suggested Trump’s decision amounts to an “absence of American leadership” but said U.S. businesses would nonetheless “step up and do even more to lead the way” on climate issues.
During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to tear up the agreement, which he said was hurting American workers.
Though much of Trump’s opposition to the deal appears to stem from economic concerns, there is also a question whether Trump believes in the problem that the accord was meant to address in the first place - global warming caused by unbridled industrial development.
On various occasions, Trump has suggested that he does not believe in global warming at all. In a 2012 tweet, Trump famously said he believes the concept was a hoax created by the Chinese in order to hurt the U.S. economy.
Pulling away from the deal will have far-reaching global impact, as the U.S. is the world’s biggest economy and second-biggest polluter.
For now, however, there are few signs other countries will follow Trump’s lead. Many of the world’s biggest polluters, including China, the European Union and India have already vowed to keep their commitments outlined in the deal.
