US President Donald Trump has confirmed that the country will definitely withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Speaking at an energy conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Trump announced that the US will pull out from the Paris Agreement on climate change. He described the treaty as a bad deal for the country and claimed that his his pro fossil fuel policies had made the US an energy superpower.
A formal process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement can be initiated by the US at the earliest on November 4. The withdrawal will then take effect after a year, which will be the day the 2020 US presidential election, assuming that Trump gets re-elected.
Under the Paris accord, the US needs to reduce greenhouse gases by up to 28% by 2025 based on 2005 levels. While Trump has expressed that he would pull out of the agreement if he could not improve that deal, reports indicate that there has been no major initiative to renegotiate the deal.
Meanwhile, the president has vowed to turn the US into an energy superpower and he’s attempting to abolish numerous pollution legislation to reduce the cost of producing gas, oil and coal. According to Trump, former President Barack Obama's environmental clean-up plans was a war on American energy.
Obama joined the Paris agreement on the notion that the US should take a lead on climate change because the country has produced far more greenhouse gases than any other nation which are already in the atmosphere.
On the other hand, Trump argued: The Paris accord would have been shutting down American producers with excessive regulatory restrictions like you would not believe, while allowing foreign producers to pollute with impunity. What we won't do is punish the American people while enriching foreign polluters," he said, adding: "I'm proud to say it - it's called America First."
