But Cohn, Trump’s chief White House economic adviser, told reporters during the trip overseas that the president’s views on climate change were “evolving” following the discussions with European leaders. “Both ways”, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
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Elon Musk has a message for President Donald Trump: Don’t leave the Paris climate agreement.
A U.S. withdrawal from the Paris accord would be a huge blow to the deal that aims to reduce carbon emissions and avert the worst effects of climate change. Nearly 60% of Americans-and more than half in almost every congressional district-believe that climate change will affect people in the U.S. someday, according to last year’s Yale survey, which created a statistical model based on survey data from 2008 to 2016.
Based on voluntary emissions-cutting pledged by countries so far, the planet is on track for warming of about three degrees, many scientists say – a recipe for possibly catastrophic floods, storms, drought and ocean-level increases.
The United States committed to reduce its emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. Trump has called the idea of global warming a hoax. He ended his statement by demonizing Trump, the fossil fuel companies, and the Republican Party.
During President Obama’s tenure in the White House, the US pledged $3 billion to the fund and transferred $1 billion in two installments, the second just three days before Obama stepped down from office.
Trump doesn’t “comprehensively understand” the terms of the accord, though European leaders tried to explain the process for withdrawing to him “in clear, simple sentences” during summit meetings last week, Jean-Claude Juncker said in Berlin.
Pruitt, a Kentucky native, is one of the strongest voices pressing for a complete withdrawal from the Paris pact.
His appeal suggested that if the United States, the world’s biggest carbon emitter after China, was to quit the deal, the onus would be on other key players like China, India and the European Union to do more to fight global warming.
Li Shuo, senior global policy adviser for Greenpeace in East Asia, said the European Union.
According to the U.N.’s website on climate change, the agreement has a “hybrid of legally binding and nonbinding provisions”.
US allies rallied behind the Paris accord on Wednesday.
Musk isn’t the only one in the tech industry speaking out against the United States leaving the Paris climate agreement. “Mr. Trump believes that because he doesn’t know the details”.
The European Union ratified the agreement in October.
“That’s the biggest irony of Donald Trump’s hypocrisy”, Blumenthal said. For the Republican president, a withdrawal would reflect his “America First” approach to policy, unencumbered by worldwide obligations.
He also noted something positive that has come from Trump’s election, according to his spokeswoman tweeting at the event.
“The U.S. traditionally has been an absolute leader on the climate agenda, certainly in the last eight years, and if they do pull out we’ll have to see what other countries are prepared to step up on a leadership position on this”, he said.
Supporters of the climate pact are concerned that a USA exit could lead other nations to weaken their commitments or also withdraw, softening an accord that scientists have said is critical to avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.
While simply attacking Trump achieved nothing, apparently neither did serving as one of his advisers.
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The president himself added to the intense speculation about the future of the agreement Wednesday morning, tweeting that it would be announced “over the next few days”.
