Taormina, Italy: Donald Trump continued to distance himself from fellow world leaders over climate change at the G7 summit, and said he’ll determine next week whether to pull the US out of the landmark Paris climate accord.
“I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week,” the president told his almost 31 million Twitter followers on Saturday. Trump, who for months has delayed a decision on the climate agreement, made his announcement at the conclusion of the Group of Seven summit in the resort town of Taormina, Italy.
In an unprecedented step, the US broke from the other six nations in a joint statement issued at the summit’s conclusion, saying America is reviewing its climate policies while the other G7 members remain committed to the Paris Agreement.
Climate was among the most disputed issues separating Trump from other leaders at the two-day meeting on the Sicilian coast. A top White House adviser said the president’s views were evolving on the issue, but Trump wasn’t immediately swayed by arguments from Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and others to honour the Paris Agreement, brokered in 2015 by almost 200 nations to slash fossil fuel emissions and boost funding to ease impacts of global warming.
“The whole discussion about climate has been difficult, or rather very unsatisfactory,” Merkel told reporters after the summit. “Here we have the situation that six members, or even seven if you want to add the EU, stand against one.”
Diplomats spent days trying to hammer out language for the G7 joint statement. Past communiques, which are painstakingly crafted to reflect common goals and values of all seven nations, have dedicated lengthy sections to climate change. At one point this week, the words “Paris Agreement” were nearly excluded from the statement, underscoring how contentious the issue became in Taormina, said a Canadian government official who spoke on the condition on anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Trump, who once said the concept of global warming “was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive,” repeatedly vowed to pull out of the Paris deal during his election campaign, but has sidestepped the issue since taking office.
Delaying a decision about the accord provided opportunity for G-7 leaders and Pope Francis to press Trump to honour the US environmental commitments. Now the president heads back to Washington, where much of his party is pushing him to do the opposite.
Last week, 22 Republican senators, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a letter to Trump urging him to exit the Paris accord. Members of his administration, meanwhile, are deadlocked on the issue. Environmental chief Scott Pruitt and top strategist Steve Bannon are pushing for a pullout. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, White House adviser Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, the president’s son-in-law and daughter respectively, have urged the president to stay in the deal.
John Kirton, director of the University of Toronto’s G8 Research Group, said Trump’s trip home may not bode well for those in favour of Paris. “If you let him go back to the civil war within the White House, Pruitt might win,” he said.
Trump has criticised efforts to cut emissions, saying they limit US economic competitiveness. The president’s views on the Paris accord, however, are evolving, White House National Economic Council director Gary Cohn told reporters on Friday in Italy. Trump may be willing to stay in the agreement, Cohn said, if the US can scale back commitments made by former President Barack Obama.
“His views are evolving, and he came here to learn,” Cohn said. “His basis for decision is ultimately going to be what’s best for the United States.”
The Paris Agreement is broader than any previous climate accord. It calls for reducing pollution in hopes of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above temperatures at the outset of the industrial revolution.
Hundreds of corporations and investors have endorsed the pact, including oil majors Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp., which was previously led by Tillerson. Alden Meyer, who’s followed climate talks for two decades as director of policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said Trump’s reluctance to support it puts him at odds with much of the world. “He stands in stark isolation,” Meyer said. “The leaders from Europe, Canada, and Japan have made it crystal clear that they intend to fully implement their national commitments under the Paris Agreement.” — Washington Post
Trump tells aide US will leave Paris climate deal
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has told “confidants,” including the head of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt, that he plans to leave a landmark international agreement on climate change, Axios news outlet reported on Saturday, citing three sources with direct knowledge.
On Saturday, Trump said in a Twitter post he would make a decision on whether to support the Paris climate deal next week.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A source who has been in contact with people involved in the decision told Reuters a couple of meetings were planned with chief executives of energy companies and big corporations and others about the climate agreement ahead of Trump’s expected announcement later in the week. It was unclear whether those meetings would still take place.
“I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week!” he tweeted on the final day of a Group of Seven (G7) summit in Italy at which he refused to bow to pressure from allies to back the landmark 2015 agreement.
The summit of G7 wealthy nations pitted Trump against the leaders of Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Japan on several issues, with European diplomats frustrated at having to revisit questions they had hoped were long settled.
Trump, who has previously called global warming a hoax, came under concerted pressure from the other leaders to honour the 2015 Paris Agreement on curbing carbon emissions. Although he tweeted that he would make a decision next week, his apparent reluctance to embrace the first legally binding global climate deal that was signed by 195 countries clearly annoyed German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “The entire discussion about climate was very difficult, if not to say very dissatisfying,” she told reporters. “There are no indications whether the United States will stay in the Paris Agreement or not.” — Reuters
