Trump plans to withdraw US from Paris climate change deal, reports
President Donald Trump plans to make good on his campaign vow to withdraw the United States from a global pact to fight climate change, a source briefed on the decision said on Wednesday, a move that promises to deepen a rift with U.S. allies, Reuters reported.
According to Reuters, White House officials cautioned that details were still being hammered out and that, although close, the decision on withdrawing from the 195-nation accord – agreed to in Paris in 2015 – was not finalized.
Trump, who has previously called global warming a hoax, did not confirm the decision in a post on Twitter, saying only, “I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days.”
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump was working out the terms of the planned withdrawal with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, an oil industry ally and climate change doubter, Reuters indicated.
Under the pact, virtually every nation voluntarily committed to combat climate change with steps aimed at curbing global emissions of “greenhouse” gases such as carbon dioxide generated from burning of fossil fuels that scientists blame for a warming planet, sea level rise, droughts and more frequent violent storms. It was the first legally binding global climate deal, it also added.
A withdrawal would put the United States in league with Syria and Nicaragua as the world’s only non-participants in the Paris agreement, Reuters explained.
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