US president Donald Trump (File Photo)
Announcing US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, President Donald Trump said the deal was not tough enough on other countries like India and China. The president added, “India will be allowed to double its coal production by 2020,”. He also mentioned that the European nations are also allowed to do the same.
The Paris Climate agreement aims at protecting the planet from the rising threats of climate changes. The president said, “In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord.”
He said the other countries got monetary aid from the United States and that the deal was not monetarily beneficial to the country as it cost them a lot of jobs. Trump said the agreement was putting every other country at an advantage by putting America at a “great financial disadvantage”. He called the Paris agreement a “self-inflicted major economic wound.”
He said America was committed to protection of environment but the onus had to be borne by all participating countries equally.
Trump’s decision to withdraw means the United States will become just the third country to remain out of the Paris Agreement, the other two being Nicaragua and Syria, both of which, unlike the US, never joined.
Trump said he was willing to work with Democrat leaders to reenter the Paris agreement on terms fair to the US.
“Until we do that, we are out of the agreement,” he said.
