Poll: 59% of Americans oppose plan to withdraw from Paris accord

June 6 (UPI) — An ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 59 percent of Americans oppose President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement.

The American public opposes Trump’s move by 59 percent to 28 percent. The majority of those surveyed said the decision would weaken U.S. leadership in the world; the majority also rejected Trump’s position that it would improve the U.S. economy.

About 18 percent of Americans strongly support Trump’s decision, while 46 percent strongly oppose — a 7 percent increase from the similar poll in January, the poll shows.

About 51 percent of Americans said withdrawing from the Paris agreement would hurt international efforts to address climate change, while 33 percent said it would make no difference and 11 percent said it would help efforts.

About 42 percent of Americans said withdrawing would hurt the U.S. economy, while 32 percent said it would help and 20 percent said it would make no difference.

About 55 percent of Americans said withdrawing would hurt U.S. leadership in the world, while 23 percent said it would make no difference and 18 percent said it would help.

“Views are highly partisan. Sixty-seven percent of Republicans support Trump’s decision to withdraw from the agreement; 63 percent of independents, and 82 percent of Democrats, oppose it,” Langer Research Associates analyst Gary Langer said in a statement. “Support reaches 55 percent among conservatives, compared with opposition from 64 percent of moderates and 88 percent of liberals.”

The poll, which has a 5 percent margin of error, was conducted from Friday through Sunday by New York-based Langer Research Associates for ABC News and The Washington Post via telephone interviews with a random sample of 527 Americans.

Trump last week announced his plan to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris climate change agreement, which attempts to curb global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.