Donald Trump
has decided to withdraw from the
Paris climate accord,
Axios news outlet reported on Wednesday, citing
two unidentified sources with 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 of wealthy 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
executive power 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 other emissions from the burning of fossil
fuels. Under the pact, the United States committed to reducing its emissions by
26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels 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
and Secretary 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
global warming to as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/trump-pull-us-paris-climate-accord/