NEW YORK- The Trump administration has formally submitted a notice to the United Nations announcing the country’s decision to leave the Paris Climate Agreement despite its promises to engage on the issue of climate change.
CNN News quoted the State Department as saying, “The United States supports a balanced approach to climate policy that lowers emissions while promoting economic growth and ensuring energy security”.
“We will continue to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions through innovation and technology breakthroughs and work with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently and deploy renewable and other clean energy sources, given the importance of energy access and security in many nationally determined contributions,” the statement added.
“As the President indicated in his June 1 announcement and subsequently, he is open to re-engaging in the Paris Agreement if the United States can identify terms that are more favorable to it, its businesses, its workers, its people, and its taxpayers,” it added.
The statement added that the United States will continue to participate in international climate change negotiations and meetings, including the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP-23) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, to protect U.S. interests and ensure all future policy options remain open to the administration.
“The cost to the economy at this time (by 2040) would be close to three trillion U.S. dollars in lost GDP and 6.5 million industrial jobs,” Trump had said.
