In a speech made in the White House’s Rose Garden on Thursday, President Donald Trump announced his intentions to “negotiate” with officials in the United Nations and “get out” of the Paris Agreement centered around reducing climate change across the entirety of the United Nations membership.
.
.
.
.
“(We will) begin negotiations to re-enter, either the Paris Accord…on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers,” Trump said, citing the “harsh economic and energy restrictions” that he and his administration claims the agreement puts on the United States. “So we’re getting out. But will we start to negotiate and we will see if we can make a deal that’s fair. And if we can, that’s great. And if we can’t, that’s fine.”
,
,
,
,
,
And while Trump did make note of his willingness to “re-enter the Agreement on better terms for the U.S”, the damage to international relations has already been done. In a joint statement released by Italian Prime Minister Gentiloni, German Chancellor Merkel and French President Macron, the three prominent world leaders made their unwavering commitment the Agreement known:
“We deem the momentum generated in Paris in December 2015 irreversible and we firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated since it is a vital instrument for our planet, societies and economies…we therefore reaffirm our strongest commitment to swiftly implement the Paris Agreement, including its climate finance goals and we encourage all our partners to speed up their action to combat climate change.”
.
.
.
.
Additional reports also suggest that none of the other 194 signees on the Agreement would be willing to re-negotiate terms of the plans with Trump and his team in order for the United States to re-enter the plan. On top of the extremely controversial move to leave the agreement, Donald Trump’s reasonings for leaving have also been heavily criticized. President Trump, a known climate change truther and opponent of environmental protection programs, has claimed the plan would be detrimental to job growth, economic growth and national spending, contrary to the plan allowing America to enter an ever-growing renewable energy job market, economic growth slowing down to a rate of 1.2% in Q1 of 2017 (from a rate of 2.1% in Q4 2016, Obama’s last economic evaluation) and the agreement, and any pledged spending, being entirely voluntary.
When Trump’s administration was asked on his stance on climate change after the announcement on Thursday, the issue was avoided almost entirely.
No Comments