US withdraws from Paris climate accord, targets India & China
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Thursday withdrew the US from the landmark Paris climate accord, isolating America in international efforts to fight global warming. Trump announced the US is withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement due to the “draconian financial and economic burdens” the agreement imposes on his country.
President Donald Trump today said the United States will be pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, alleging that it gave a better deal to “some of the world’s highly polluting countries” like India and China and left the US hamstrung. India, he said, “makes its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid… China will be allowed to build hundreds of additional coal mines, India will be allowed to double its coal production; we’re supposed to get rid of ours”.
While announcing the bid decision, which was flayed by many world leaders, Trump hit out at China and India saying according to the Paris Climate deal terms, Beijing will be allowed many coal plants, and New Delhi will be allowed to double its coal production by 2020, but not the US.
He said the US will begin negotiations to reenter the Paris Agreement “on terms that are fair to the United States”.”In order to fulfil my solemn duty to protect our citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord… We are getting out and we will start to renegotiate,” Trump said at the Rose Garden of the White House. World leaders criticise Trump’s decision
India has made it clear that it will not pull out of the Paris Accord – billed as the great hope to stop the unprecedented rise of global warming by cutting down on carbon emissions- even if the US does.
Two days ago, during his visit to Germany, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was asked by Chancellor Angela Merkel how India would respond if the US pulls out. PM Modi indicated that Delhi will honour its commitments, Reuters had quoted Indian officials as saying.
India had ratified the Paris Accord last year on October 2 – the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Underscoring India’s commitment to the use of clean energy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said even if global temperatures rise by 2 degrees, coastal areas like Kerala will be affected.
But officials had indicated that India might not be able to stick to the COP21 timeline for emission reduction, since it involves a number of industries, rules and processes — including electricity regulation, Motor Vehicles Act, power plants and airlines. The Paris Climate Accord can take effect only if a minimum 55 countries ratify it.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker lashed as “seriously wrong” US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate deal. Barack Obama slammed his successor President Donald Trump for pulling out of the Paris climate deal, warning that the move would see the United States “reject the future” by not abiding by the agreement.
Dutch Minister for the Environment Sharon Dijksma termed the Trump’s announcement as a ‘historic mistake’.France, Germany, Italy issued a joint statement saying the Paris climate deal can’t be renegotiated.French President Emmanuel Macron said Donald Trump had made an historic error by abandoning the Paris climate agreement.
The Paris Climate Change Agreement adopted by 194 countries is a historic treaty and cannot be renegotiated, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said on Friday.The Paris Agreement remains a historic treaty signed by 194 and ratified by 147 countries. Therefore it cannot be renegotiated based on the request of a single Party (the US), the UNFCCC said in a statement here.
