In order to fulfil my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord... but begin negotiations to re-enter either the Paris accord or a really entirely new transaction, on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers.
Thus, as of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris accord and the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country.
This includes ending the implementation of the nationally determined contribution and, very importantly, the Green Climate Fund, which is costing the United States a vast fortune.
Compliance with the terms of the Paris accord and the onerous energy restrictions it has placed on the United States could cost America as much as 2.7 million lost jobs by 2025, according to the National Economic Research Associates.
This includes 440,000 fewer manufacturing jobs — not what we need. Believe me, this is not what we need — including automobile jobs and the further decimation of vital American industries on which countless communities rely — they rely for so much, and we would be giving them so little.
According to the same study, by 2040, compliance with the commitments put into place by the previous administration would cut production for the following sectors: paper, down 12 per cent; cement, down 23 per cent; iron and steel, down 38 per cent; coal, and I happen to love the coal miners, down 86 per cent; natural gas, down 31 per cent.
The cost to the economy at this time would be close to $3 trillion in lost GDP and 6.5 million industrial jobs, while households would have 7,000 less income, and in many cases, much worse than that.
The world’s leader in environmental protection imposes no meaningful obligations on the world’s leading polluters. For example, under the agreement, China will be able to increase these emissions by a staggering number of years — 13. They can do whatever they want for 13 years. Not us.
India makes its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries. There are many other examples. But the bottom line is that the Paris accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States.
Further, the current agreement effectively blocks the development of clean coal in America, which it does. And the mines are starting to open up, having a big opening in two weeks — Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, so many places. A big opening of a brand new mine. It’s unheard of. For many, many years that hasn’t happened. They asked me if I’d go. I’m going to try.
China will be allowed to build hundreds of additional coal plants. So, we can’t build the plants, but they can, according to this agreement. India will be allowed to double its coal production by 2020. Think of it. India can double their coal production. We’re supposed to get rid of ours. Even Europe is allowed to continue construction of coal plants.
In short, the agreement doesn’t eliminate coal jobs. It just transfers those jobs out of America and the United States, and ships them to foreign countries. This agreement is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United States.
The rest of the world applauded when we signed the Paris Agreement. They went wild. They were so happy. For the simple reason that it put our country, the United States of America, which we all love, at a very, very big economic disadvantage. A cynic would say the obvious reason for economic competitors and their wish to see us remain in the agreement is so that we continue to suffer this self-inflicted major economic wound. We would find it very hard to compete with other countries from other parts of the world.
We have among the most abundant energy reserves in the planet, sufficient to lift millions of America’s poorest workers out of poverty. Yet under this agreement, we are effectively putting these reserves under lock and key, taking away the great wealth of our nation, great wealth, phenomenal wealth.
Not so long ago we had no idea we had such wealth. And leaving millions and millions of families trapped in poverty and joblessness. The agreement is a massive redistribution of United States wealth to other countries.
At one per cent growth, renewable sources of energy can meet some of our domestic demand. But at three or four per cent growth, which I expect, we need all forms of available American energy, or our country will be at grave risk of brown-outs and blackouts. Our businesses will come to a halt in many cases. And the American family will suffer the consequences in the form of lost jobs and a very diminished quality of life.
Even if the Paris Agreement were implemented in full, with total compliance from all nations, it is estimated it would only produce two tenths of one degree — think of that, this much — Celsius reduction in global temperature by the year 2100.
Tiny, tiny amount. In fact, 14 days of carbon emissions from China alone would wipe out the gains from America and this is an incredible statistic — it would totally wipe out the gains from America’s expected reductions in the year 2030.
After we have had to spend billions and billions of dollars, lost jobs, closed factories and suffered much higher energy costs for our businesses and for our homes.
As The Wall Street Journal wrote this morning, “The reality is that withdrawing is in America's economic interest and won’t matter much to the climate. The United States under the Trump Administration will continue to be the cleanest and most environmentally friendly country on earth.”
We’ll be the cleanest. We’re going to have the cleanest air. We’re going to have the cleanest water. We will be environmentally friendly but we’re not going to put our businesses out of work, we’re not going to lose our jobs.
We’re going to grow. We’re going to grow rapidly.
I’m willing to immediately work with Democratic leaders to either negotiate our way back into Paris under the terms that are fair to the United States and its workers or to negotiate a new deal that protects our country and its taxpayers.
And we’ll sit down with the Democrats and all of the people that represent either the Paris accord or something that we can do that’s much better than the Paris accord. But until we do that we’re out of the agreement.
The fact that the Paris deal hamstrings the United States while empowering some of the world’s top polluting countries should dispel any doubt as to the real reason why foreign lobbyists wished to keep our magnificent country tied up and bound down by this agreement.
At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us as a country? We want fair treatment for its citizens and we want fair treatment for our taxpayers. We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us any more, and they won’t be. They won’t be.
I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.
I promised I would exit or renegotiate any deal, which fails to serve America’s interests. Many trade deals will soon be under re-negotiation. Very rarely do we have a deal that works for this country, but they’ll soon be under re-negotiation. The process has begun from day one, but now we’re down to business.
US President Donald Trump announcing that the US will withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, in Washington on June 1