United States President Donald Trump today withdrew from the historic Paris Climate Change Accord, saying that the agreement punished the United States of America.
In a speech delivered at the White House's Rose Garden, President Trump indicated that India and China - in his words among the world's leading polluters - were getting off easy.
Trump compared the concessions granted to India under the deal, saying that while while India was allowed to double its coal production by 2020, the United States was expected to "get rid" of its coal jobs 'The agreement doesn't eliminate coal jobs, it just moves them to foreign countries,' Trump told a gathering of media in Washington.
President Trump went on to say that the Paris climate accord was an example of an agreement that disadvantaged the United States of America and was in fact about other countries gaining a "financial advantage" over the United States.
Supporters of the accord condemned Trump's move as an abdication of American leadership, an international disgrace and a monumental foreign policy blunder. His predecessor, Barack Obama, expressed regret over the pullout from a deal he was instrumental in brokering. "We're getting out," Trump said at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden in which he decried the Paris accord's "draconian" financial and economic burdens. He said American withdrawal "represents a reassertion of American sovereignty."
Trump said the United States would begin negotiations either to re-enter the Paris accord or to have a new agreement "on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers." US allies voiced dismay over Trump's move, and France, Germany and Italy dismissed his suggestion that the global pact could be revised. With Trump's action, the United States will walk away from nearly every nation in the world on one of the pressing global issues of the 21st century.
The pullout will align the United States with Syria and Nicaragua as the world's only non-participants in the accord. Trump said the United States would cease payments to the UN Green Climate Fund, in which rich countries committed billions of dollars to help developing countries deal with floods, droughts and other impacts from climate change.
The United States was one of 195 nations that agreed to the accord in Paris in December 2015. But Trump said the accord would "undermine our economy, hamstring our workers, weaken our sovereignty, impose unacceptable legal risk, and put us at a permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world."
"We don't want other leaders and other countries laughing at us any more. And they won't be," Trump added as he tapped into the "America First" message he used when he was elected president last year. Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said he will leave White House advisory councils after Trump's move. "Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world," Musk said in a Twitter post. General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt said he was disappointed, adding, "Climate change is real. Industry must now lead and not depend on government."
Republican US congressional leaders backed Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell applauded Trump "for dealing yet another significant blow to the Obama administration's assault on domestic energy production and jobs."
Democrats blasted the president's move. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the decision "one of the worst policy moves made in the 21st century because of the huge damage to our economy, our environment and our geopolitical standing." - India Today
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