President Donald Trump announced America’s shock withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, prompting a furious global backlash and throwing efforts to slow global warming into serious doubt.
In a sharply nationalistic and at times meandering address from the White House Rose Garden, Trump announced the United States would immediately stop implementing the “bad” 195-nation accord.
“I cannot, in good conscience, support a deal that punishes the United States,” he said, decrying what he said were the “draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country.”
Trump repeatedly painted the pact -- struck by his predecessor Barack Obama -- as a capitulation, a deal that did not “put America first” and was too easy on economic rivals India, China and Europe.
Trump offered no details about how, or when, a formal withdrawal would happen, and at one point suggested a renegotiation could take place.
That idea was unceremoniously slapped down by furious allies in Europe, who joined figures from around the United States in condemning the move.
“The agreement cannot be renegotiated,” France, Germany and Italy said in a joint statement.
The United States is the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China, so Trump’s decision could seriously hamper efforts to cut emissions and limit global temperature increases.
Amid Trump’s domestic critics was Obama, who said the United States was “joining a handful of nations that reject the future.”
Nicaragua and Syria are the only countries not party to the Paris accord, the former seeing it as not ambitious enough and the latter being racked by a brutal civil war.
Obama insisted that US business, State Governors and the Mayors of major cities would step up.
The Democratic Governors of New York, California and Washington States indeed formed a quick alliance, vowing to respect the standards agreed on under the Paris deal.
With much of the implementation of the accord taking place at the local level, the Paris accord’s supporters will hope the deal will be in hibernation rather than killed off entirely.
Trump’s decision is likely to play well with the Republican base, so the more immediate damage may be on the diplomatic front.
Trump called German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May — as well as Canada’s Justin Trudeau —to explain the decision.
But traditional US allies were uncharacteristically blunt in their condemnation of Trump’s decision, which comes amid already strained relationships with the hard-charging new President.