US President Donald Trump announced America's shock withdrawal from the Paris climate accord Thursday June 01,2017, prompting a furious global backlash and throwing efforts to slow global warming into serious doubt.
In a sharply nationalistic and at times meandering address from the White House Rose Garden, Trump announced the United States would immediately stop implementing the "bad" 195-nation accord.
"I cannot, in good conscience, support a deal that punishes the United States," he said, decrying what he said were the "draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country."
Trump repeatedly painted the pact -- struck by his predecessor Barack Obama -- as a capitulation, a deal that did not "put America first" and was too easy on economic rivals India, China and Europe.
"I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," he said. "We don't want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore. And they won't be."
Trump offered no details about how, or when, a formal withdrawal would happen, and at one point suggested a renegotiation could take place.
"We're getting out but we'll start to negotiate and we will see if we can make a deal that's fair. And if we can, that's great. And if we can't, that's fine," he said.
That idea was unceremoniously slapped down by furious allies in Europe, who joined figures from around the United States in condemning the move.
"The agreement cannot be renegotiated," France, Germany and Italy said in a joint statement
Note
The United States is the world's second largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China, so Trump's decision could seriously hamper efforts to cut emissions and limit global temperature increases.
Nicaragua and Syria are the only countries not party to the Paris accord, the former seeing it as not ambitious enough and the latter being racked by a brutal civil war
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