Donald Trump has decided to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, Axios news outlet reported on Wednesday, citing two unidentified sourceswith direct knowledge of the decision.
Trump who has previously called global warming a hoax, refused to endorse the landmark climate change accord at a summit of the G7 group ofwealthy nations on Saturday, saying he needed more time to decide. He then tweeted that he would make an announcement this week.
As president, Trump can withdraw from Paris on his own authority. The reason it was called an ‘agreement’ was to enable Barack Obama to use the president’s executivepower to ratify it without having to seek the permission of the Republican-control Congress, which must ratify any international ‘treaties’.
Fox News also cited an unidentified source confirming the pullout.
The accord, agreed on by nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015, aims to limit planetary warming in part by slashing carbon dioxide and otheremissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Under the pact, the United States committed to reducing its emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005levels by 2025.
If the report is correct, it will mean Trump is ignoring the advice of a string of senior advisers, including his own daughter Ivanka Trump, Defence Secretary James Mattis andSecretary of State Rex Tillerson, who all advocated keeping ‘a seat at the table’.
The report of the apparent decision comes hours after the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the US to remain within the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit globalwarming to as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/trump-pull-us-paris-climate-accord/
