WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has announced that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, but will begin negotiations to “re-enter either the Paris accord or an entirely new transaction.”
Trump says during a White House Rose Garden announcement that the U.S. will exit the landmark climate agreement aimed at reducing carbon emissions to slow climate change.
Trump says the deal “disadvantages” the U.S. and is causing lost jobs and lower wages.
The leaders of France, Germany and Italy say the Paris climate accord cannot be renegotiated as President Donald Trump has demanded.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni said in a joint statement Thursday that they take note “with regret” the U.S. decision to pull out of the 2015 agreement.
The three leaders say they regard the accord as “a cornerstone in the cooperation between our countries, for effectively and timely tackling climate change.”
They added that the course charted by the accord is “irreversible and we firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated.”
Macron, Merkel and Gentiloni say they remain committed to the deal and will “step up efforts” to support the poorest and most threatened nations.
The announcement fulfills one of Trump’s top campaign pledges. But it also undermines world efforts to combat global warming.
The U.S. had agreed under former President Barack Obama to reduce emissions to 26 percent to 28 percent of 2005 levels by 2025 — about 1.6 billion tons.
Former President Barack Obama says the Trump administration is joining “a small handful of nations that reject the future” by withdrawing from the Paris climate change pact.
Obama is defending the deal that his administration painstakingly negotiated. He says the countries that stay in the Paris deal will “reap the benefits in “jobs and industries created.” He says the U.S. should be “at the front of the pack.”
The former president says in a statement that Trump’s decision reflects “the absence of American leadership.” But Obama says he’s confident nonetheless that U.S. cities, states and businesses will fill the void by taking the lead on protecting the climate.
Obama says that businesses have chosen “a low-carbon future” and are already investing heavily in renewable sources like wind and solar.
Vice President Mike Pence says President Donald Trump is “choosing to put American jobs and American consumers first” with his announcement that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris accord.
Pence introduced Trump in the Rose Garden Thursday. Trump is expected to announce that the U. S. will withdraw from the Paris global climate pact. That’s according to a White House official, congressional officials and others briefed by the White House.
Pence praised Trump’s leadership and said Trump is “is choosing to put the forgotten men and women of America first.”
Abandoning the pact was one of Trump’s principal campaign pledges.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta said, “President Trump and I are committed to supporting policies that grow jobs and stimulate the economy. The United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate accord is this administration’s bold commitment to promoting pro-growth principles and rebuilding America’s manufacturing base, which was under siege by the Paris accord. The U.S. Department of Labor remains laser focused on ensuring all Americans have access to good, safe jobs and will continue standing arm-in-arm with the American worker.”
The U.S. had agreed under former President Barack Obama to reduce emissions to 26 percent to 28 percent of 2005 levels by 2025 — about 1.6 billion tons.
The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, is urging countries to work together on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, even as Trump said he’s pulling the United States out of an international agreement to combat climate change.
Walmart says international cooperation “is a laudable and necessary goal.”
The company earlier this year launched Project Gigaton, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout its supply chain by 1 billion tons by 2030.
The company says, “Our commitments to renewable energy and emission reductions have been embedded in our business for more than a decade, and we believe they are good for our customers, good for our business and good for our environment.”
Walmart spokesman Greg Hitt says they see those commitments as “outside politics” and don’t expect to change them.
Former Vice President Joe Biden says on Twitter: “We’re already feeling impacts of climate change.”
The former vice president says that exiting the agreement “imperils U.S. security and our ability to own the clean energy future.”
Biden as vice president supported former President Barack Obama’s efforts to take part in the Paris accord and fight the effects of climate change.
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), said in a statement, “The withdrawal from Paris is part of a strategy, pushed by the new anarchists that surround the president, to shrink the United States back into its borders and end a century of U.S. global leadership. This is a gift to the Chinese and the Russians and other ascendant nations who will eagerly fill this leadership void. And to make matters even worse, as the rest of the world pursues a course of renewable energy, all the millions of jobs that go with that transition will be created in countries that stay in the Paris Accord. The president’s decision to leave Paris is both a planet killer and a job killer.”
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)said in a statement, “No one can fight and win if they abandon the field. America has been made a lesser nation by withdrawing from the Paris Agreement: in jobs and technology, in innovation and leadership, in saving our planet and rolling back the progress we’ve made in combating climate change.”
Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty said, “I urge the President and his advisers to consider the enormous advantages to America of continuing to honor the Paris Accord and to join virtually every other country on the planet in siding with science. The well-being of the American people – now and in the future – is at stake.”
The League of Women Voters said, “Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement is a giant step in the wrong direction for the health of the planet and all living beings. President Trump’s decision today will undermine global cooperation and have a harmful impact on U.S. relations with our most trusted world allies.
