Washington has formally launched its withdrawal from the 2015 Paris climate accord after Donald Trump rejected it as harmful to the US economy. European leaders have expressed their dismay and made overtures to China.
The US is set to become the first country to pull out of the landmark Paris climate accord which aims to limit pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo submitted a formal notice to the United Nations to start the one-year withdrawal process.
“The US is proud of our record as a world leader in reducing all emissions, fostering resilience, growing our economy and ensuring energy for our citizens. Ours is a realistic and pragmatic model,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter.
Today we begin the formal process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. The U.S. is proud of our record as a world leader in reducing all emissions, fostering resilience, growing our economy, and ensuring energy for our citizens. Ours is a realistic and pragmatic model.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) November 4, 2019
Reactions from Europe
The European Union said it was disappointed by the move.
“The withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement means that the rest of us must further increase our cooperation,” Krista Mikkonen, minister of environment for current European Council president Finland, said in a statement.
“We will continue to work with US states, cities and civil society in support of climate action.”
German Development Minister Gerd Müller described the withdrawal as a step backwards: “Industrialized countries in particular, who are the main contributors to climate change, have a special responsibility and must act as role models,” the minister said in Berlin.
Speaking at a trade fair in China, French President Emmanuel Macron said countries had to enhance commitments to reduce emissions, and confirm new ones.
“The cooperation between China and the European Union in this respect is decisive,” Macron said. “Next year, we need, in the agenda of enhancement, to be collectively up to the task.”
An aide to Macron, who was with the president in China, said the US move was expected.
“We regret this and this only makes the Franco-Chinese partnership on the climate and biodiversity more necessary,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Macron and China’s Xi Jinping are set to sign a document affirming the “irreversibility” of the Paris climate accord, the official added. The two presidents are due to hold a formal meeting in Beijing on Wednesday.
Undoing Obama’s pledge
Virtually all UN nations, including the United States, endorsed the deal after it was agreed in the French capital in 2015. Under former President Barack Obama, the US government promised to cut 26-28% of its greenhouse gas emissions when compared with 2005 levels. This goal was set to be completed by 2025.
However, Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, has repeatedly slammed the deal as harmful to the US economy and pledged to abandon it.
“What we won’t do is punish the American people while enriching foreign polluters,” Trump said at a shale
gas industry conference in Pennsylvania last month.
Before running for office, Trump described global warming as a “hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.”
