BRUSSELS — (CNN) European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted a direct appeal to US President Donald Trump early Thursday not to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Trump has said he will announce his decision on the landmark climate accord later Thursday. Two senior US officials familiar with Trump’s plans told CNN on Wednesday that the US President is expected to withdraw from the Paris accord.
If so, this would be a major break from international partners — including the European Union — that would isolate the United States in global efforts to curb global warming.
In what appeared to be a last-ditch appeal, Tusk tweeted: “@realDonaldTrump please don’t change the (political) climate for the worse.”
EU, China join forces
Tusk’s intervention came as the European Union and China announced they were standing together to push forward implementation of the accord, an unusual alliance that emphasizes the absence of the United States from the playing field.
“The EU and China are joining forces to forge ahead on the implementation of the Paris Agreement and accelerate the global transition to clean energy,” EU Commissioner on Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete told CNN in a statement.
“No one should be left behind, but the EU and China have decided to move forward. Our successful cooperation on issues like emissions trading and clean technologies are bearing fruit. Now is the time to further strengthen these ties to keep the wheels turning for ambitious global climate action.”
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European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also warned Trump against exiting the Paris climate change deal — a treaty ratified by the United States last year — in a speech Wednesday, declaring: “The law is the law, and everyone must adhere to it.”
According to the European Commission’s Berlin office, Juncker told an audience in the German capital: “I am a trans-Atlanticist. But if the American President was to say in the coming hours that he wants to exit the Paris Accord, then it is our duty to say: ‘You can’t do that.’
“We are not only talking about the future of European people, we are first and foremost talking about the future of people elsewhere. Eighty-three countries are in danger of disappearing from the face of the Earth if we do not begin combating climate change in a resolute way.”
G7 leaders dismayed
Trump tweeted late Wednesday that he would announce his decision at 3 p.m. ET in the White House Rose Garden, ending his message “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters earlier that he wasn’t sure whether Trump had made a final decision yet.
“I obviously don’t know whether he’s made it,” Spicer said during a Wednesday afternoon briefing. “When the President has a decision he will make that announcement and he will make it clear what the basis of that is.”
The White House was initially slated to make a final decision on the climate accord last month, but then said it would wait until after last week’s G7 meeting in Sicily.
At the summit, leaders expressed dismay at Trump’s climate stance. After the meetings concluded, the US refused to sign onto a statement of support for the Paris accord that all other G7 participants approved.
The Paris climate agreement was established during a 2015 conference in the French capital. Every nation signed on minus two: war-torn Syria and Nicaragua, which insists the deal isn’t tough enough.
In signing onto the accord, countries pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but were given wide leeway in how much they planned to reduce them by.
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