The Paris climate pact did not hold countries like India and China accountable on greenhouse emissions, the White House has said as it defended US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the landmark accord.
"As you know, China did not have to take any steps of compliance until 2030. India had no obligations until $2.5 trillion of aid was provided," Scott Pruitt, administrator of
Environmental Protection Agency told reporters at a White House news conference.
The White House reaction comes a day after Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and said the US would renegotiate.
"And Russia, when they set their targets, they set 1990 as their baseline, which allowed them to continue emitting more CO2," Pruitt said.
"It (Paris accord) did not hold nations like China and India accountable," he said.
Pruitt said Trump made a very courageous decision by pulling out of the Paris Agreement.
US President Donald Trump unloaded on India among other countries during an epic rant on Thursday while announcing American withdrawal from the Paris climate change accord.
The shrill speech, replete with claims of American victimhood at the hands of the rest of the world, casts a chill on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's expected visit to the White House later this month, which officials say remains on schedule.
Phone and cables lines between Washington and New Delhi were buzzing on Thursday and Friday as Indian officials and diplomats took stock of Trump's direct, no-holds-barred attack in which he accused New Delhi of trying to extract "billions and billions and billions" of dollars in foreign aid from the developed world to sign up for the climate accord.
Although dates for the PM's trip have not been formally or officially announced, the White House has penciled in June 26-27 for the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Modi.
The meeting, which Indian officials said on background is still on despite the climate change fireworks, will now take place under a cloud of misgivings, including the Trump administration's crackdown of guest worker visas that is adversely affecting Indian businesses, its squeeze on US manufacturing abroad that is forcing a scaling down of US investment in India, and now its withdrawal from the Paris Treaty after previous US administrations dragged New Delhi kicking and screaming into it.
08:38 Drama at IGI Airport T3 as MP insists on taking knife on flight:
BJP MP from Barabanki Priyanka Singh Rawat on Friday insisted on taking an unfolded knife with her on a flight, leading to a long argument between her and officials at Indira Gandhi International Airports Terminal 3 in the capital. She eventually agreed to put the knife in the hold area of the Air India aircraft, where arms and ammunition are stored in the custody of Air India crew members.
O P Singh, DG, CISF, which looks after security at airports, confirmed the incident. Our security personnel detected an unfolded knife in her hand baggage and firmly informed her about the rules. But she refused to remove it and we had to call the Air India duty manager to convince her.
Rawat denied that such an incident had taken place and maintained that she had followed all rules. It was not a knife, they detected a keyring in my hand baggage, she said.
Sources said that Rawat was taking Air India flight-411 to Lucknow. The flight was scheduled for 7.10 am. Around 6.15 am, at security checking, security personnel detected an unfolded knife when her hand baggage was put inside the X-ray machine. The personnel informed her that carrying the item is prohibited, citing civil aviation ministry rules, sources said.
08:28 JUST IN: National Investigation Agency raids 14 locations in Kashmir, 8 in Delhi in connection with the terror funding case. Raids underway
The Election Commission's much-talked about EVM challenge will be held in the national capital on Saturday morning. The Uttarakhand high court in a significant development on Friday barred all political parties, individuals, media and even social media networks, like Facebook and Twitter, from criticising the use of EVMs in the recently conducted assembly polls.
A two-judge bench of Justices Sharad Kumar Sharma and Rajiv Sharma said that "all recognised national and state parties, other political parties, NGOs, individuals, in larger public interest, are restrained from criticising the use of EVMs in the recently concluded elections" and cannot approach print, electronic media, radio, Facebook or Twitter with criticism of any kind.
Meanwhile, the EC said its EVM challenge will start at 10 am on Saturday as scheduled. So far, NCP and CPI-M have nominated three representatives each for the challenge. The poll panel will provide 14 randomly selected EVMs which were used during the general and state elections in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh to prove that EVMs cannot be tampered with, as alleged by various opposition parties.
South mega star Kamal Haasan on Friday said that he will be "forced to quit cinema" if the GST rate for the entertainment industry is not slashed by at least half.
GST or Goods and Services Tax is set to be launched next month and aims at replacing a tangled web of central and state levies with a single tax.
For the film industry, the entertainment and services taxes will be replaced by a single 28 per cent slab which, says Kamal Haasan, is steep.
"We welcome GST and one India one tax. But this rate will ruin regional cinema," said the 62-year-old actor-filmmaker, urging Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to cut the GST rate to 12-15 per cent.
"If I can't afford the tax I'll have to quit. I will not work for the government... what is this? Is this the East India Company?" Haasan questioned.
GST, India's biggest tax overhaul, is set to debut on July 1. A small list of goods will be exempt from taxes while the rest will be taxed at the approved rates of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent.