President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, according to a flurry of media reports in the past hours.
At the G-7 summit over the weekend, President Trump refused on Saturday to recommit to the Paris agreement, while the six other leading industrialized nations reiterated their support for the accord, which sets out a global action plan to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below two degrees Celsius.
Trump, who had promised during the campaign that he would pull the U.S. out of the deal, tweeted on Saturday that he would make his final decision on the Paris Accord this week.
According to news outlet Axios, which quotes two sources with direct knowledge of the decision, Trump has decided to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Details over how exactly the withdrawal would take place are being hammered out by a small team that includes Environment Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, according to Axios’ sources.
The team is debating whether to launch a full formal withdrawal that could take three years, or exit the United Nations climate change treaty used as a basis for the accord. The latter option would take less time, but would be more extreme, Axios says.
According to the Associated Press, a White House official has said—on condition of anonymity—that Trump is expected to withdraw the U.S. from the agreement, but there may be some “caveats in the language” that the president would use to announce the news, suggesting that the decision may not be final.
Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
