Politicians across the world have expressed ‘disappointment’ at Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will pull out from the Paris Climate Accord.
President Trump announced on Thursday that United States would withdraw from the Paris agreement ‘and begin negotiations to either re-enter or negotiate an entirely new agreement with more favorable terms for the United States’.
US President Donald J Trump
The White House pointed out that President Trump was fulfilling a key pledge made during the election campaign last year.
In an address in the Rose Garden, the President vowed that the U.S. would maintain its position as a world leader in clean energy, while protecting the economy and strengthening the work force.
The Paris agreement was negotiated in the French capital in December 2015 and requires signatories to limit their greenhouse gas emissions, primarily carbon dioxide, with the aim of limiting the average global temperature rise below 2 degrees celsius.
Climate change is expected to bring more severe weather to the UK, including heavier rainfall and more flooding.
The prime minister, Theresa May, joined many world leaders in expressing her ‘disappointment’. She is said to have told Mr Trump in a phone call that the Paris agreement protects the ‘prosperity and security of future generations’.
France, Germany and Italy issued a joint statement rejecting any renegotiation of the agreement.
OECD secretary-general Angel Gurría said: 'Despite the US decision to withdraw from this agreement, it is reassuring that all of the remaining signatories have unequivocally reaffirmed their own commitments, demonstrating strong leadership toward the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the second half of the century.
'The OECD urges countries, companies, cities, states, and citizens to step up their efforts in combatting climate change, in defending the future generations that it threatens, through ambitious outcomes under the Paris Agreement. We also hope that the US government might find it possible to reconsider its decision at a future moment.'
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