The governments of Italy, France, and Germany Thursday flatly rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer to renegotiate the Paris climate accord.
“We deem the momentum generated in Paris in December 2015 irreversible and we firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated, since it is a vital instrument for our planet, societies and economies,” the leaders of the three countries said in a joint statement.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump had announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris agreement and immediately begin negotiations to re-enter on terms that are “fair to the United States.”
The statement by French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel indicates that Europe would rather keep the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement than permit the U.S. to re-enter on more favorable terms. That likely means that the U.S. will remain out of the agreement for the foreseeable future.