US to officially pull out of Donald Trump’s hated Paris climate agreement because of its ‘unfair economic burden’
THE US will officially pull out of Donald Trump’s hated Paris climate agreement, it was announced today.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States had notified the United Nations on Monday of its plan to exit the global environmental pact.
In a statement, he touted America’s carbon pollution cuts and called the Paris deal an “unfair economic burden” to the US.
The process to withdraw from the accord – agreed in 2015 and signed by 195 countries – will take a year to complete.
Under the agreement, each country is required to plan and report on its contributions to mitigate global warming.
The US is the first nation to pull out of the deal.
President Trump has steadily been rolling back legislation designed to lower US reliance on fossil fuels.
He also made withdrawal from the Paris agreement one of his key pitches to working class voters in mining and manufacturing towns.
In June 2017, six months after taking office, Trump told of his desire to create a “level playing field” for the US economy.
He said: “This agreement is less about the climate and more about other countries obtaining a financial advantage over the United States.”
Trump vowed to independently establish the “highest standard of living, highest standard of environmental protection.”
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But he added: “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”
The Paris Agreement was the first to commit all nations to limiting global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions.
Leaders agreed to hold global warming to “well below” 2C over pre-Industrial Revolution levels, and to strive for a lower limit of 1.5C.
More to follow…
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