Trump was widely believed to be leaning toward pulling the US out of the Paris agreement – seen as a major achievement of his predecessor, Barack Obama
US President Donald Trump will announce he will withdraw his government’s ratification of an international agreement to limit emissions of greenhouse gases, the Associated Press and CNN reported. Trump’s decision reverses a key pillar of former President Barack Obama’s effort to combat an increase in global temperatures, which scientists say has been hastened by the burning of coal, oil and other fossil fuels. The move also cedes global climate action leadership to China and the EU. China’s Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently pledged to work together on environmental issues including climate change. The Paris Agreement, a climate action plan drafted as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, enumerates non-binding targets set by each ratifying country for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The accord came into effect in November 2016, after the US and other major greenhouse gas emitters, including China and India, signed the agreement. The US is one of 147 Paris Agreement signatories, and would be the first to back out.
