NEW YORK — Donald Trump continued to distance himself from fellow leaders over climate change at the Group of Seven summit, and said he'll determine next week whether to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement.
"I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week," the president said in a Twitter post Saturday.
Trump, who for months has delayed a decision on the climate agreement, made his announcement at the conclusion of the G-7 summit in Taormina, Italy.
The U.S. broke from the other six nations in a joint statement issued at the summit's conclusion, saying America is reviewing its climate policies while the other G-7 members remain committed to the Paris agreement.
Climate was among the most disputed issues separating Trump from other leaders at the two-day meeting on the Sicilian coast. Trump wasn't swayed by arguments from Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, France's President Emmanuel Macron and others to honor the Paris agreement, agreed upon in 2015 by almost 200 nations to cut fossil fuel emissions and boost funding to ease the effects of global warming.
"The whole discussion about climate has been difficult, or rather very unsatisfactory," Merkel said after the summit. "Here we have the situation that six members, or even seven if you want to add the EU, stand against one."
Trump, who once said the concept of global warming "was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive," repeatedly said during his election campaign that he would he would pull out of the Paris, but has sidestepped the issue since taking office.
Members of his administration are deadlocked about whether the U.S. should uphold the agreement Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is among those advocating for the U.S. to stay with the deal, said this past week that Trump wouldn't decide on the issue until he returns to the U.S. The delay provided opportunity for G-7 leaders and Pope Francis to press Trump to honor the U.S.'s environmental commitments.
"He stands in stark isolation," said Alden Meyer, who has followed climate talks for two decades as director of policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "The leaders from Europe, Canada, and Japan have made it crystal clear that they intend to fully implement their national commitments under the Paris Agreement."
Trump has criticized efforts to cut emissions, saying they hurt U.S. economic competitiveness. Trump may be willing to stay in the agreement, Cohn said, if the U.S. can scale back commitments made by President Barack Obama.
"His views are evolving, and he came here to learn," Cohn said. "His basis for decision is ultimately going to be what's best for the United States."
The Paris agreement is broader than any previous climate deal. It calls for reducing pollution in hopes of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above temperatures at the outset of the industrial revolution.
The decision whether the leave the Paris deal accord has been among the most fractious of the Trump administration. Environmental chief Scott Pruitt and top strategist Steve Bannon are pushing for a pullout. White House adviser Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, the president's son-in-law and daughter, have joined Tillerson in advocating staying.
Pressure has come from outside the White House, too. Hundreds of corporations and investors have endorsed the Paris agreement pact, including oil companies Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Exxon Mobil, which was previously led by Tillerson. Twenty-two Republican senators, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, sent a letter to Trump urging him to withdraw from the deal.
Wingrove reported from Ottawa, Ontario.
© 2017 Bloomberg News. Visit Bloomberg News at www.bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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