President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the United States will not comply with the Paris Climate Change Agreement agreed to by former President Barack Obama in 2015 without the consent of Congress.
Not everyone agrees with the decision, including Democrats, Vladimir Putin and the communist Chinese government.
“The Russian Government has said it supports the Paris Agreement on climate change ahead of Donald Trump’s expected announcement that he will withdraw the US from the landmark accord,” the UK Independent reported on Thursday.
The Kremlin said the deal, which seeks to limit global warming to as close to a 1.5 degrees Celsius increase as possible, would be less effective without the participation of major countries, Reuters reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters that “President (Vladimir) Putin signed this convention in Paris. Russia attaches great significance to it.
“At the same time, it goes without saying that the effectiveness of this convention is likely to be reduced without its key participants,” Peskov said.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said there was an “international responsibility” for countries to take action over climate change during a trip to Europe for talks with European Union officials.
The communist leader also claimed there is a “global consensus” on the need to fight climate change.
“In an unprecedented step, the European Union and China are to release a joint statement in a sign of the increasing closeness between Brussels and Beijing – and the widening divide between Brussels and Washington under Mr Trump,” the Independent reported.
Meanwhile, Democrats have launched a war of words since the moment Trump made the announcement, including former President Barack Obama.
“Even in the absence of American leadership; even as this Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got,” Obama said in a statement.
In a statement, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said the decision “could go down as one of the worst foreign policy blunders in our nation’s history.”
Rep. Bill Foster (D-ILL), told the Mic website it will be devastating for the country and the environment.
“If you’re a scientist and you stand up and say something you know is not true, it is a career-ending move,” Foster said. “I lost count of the number of objectively false statements the president made … the fact-checkers will have a field day.”
“President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement is a catastrophic mistake that puts the short-sighted interests of his friends in the fossil fuel industry ahead of the safety and security of American people and the future of our planet,” Sen Al Franken (D-MN) said.
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