Trump delays decision on Paris climate agreement, spokesman says

This is the second time a meeting of top aides on the issue has been delayed.

Since his election, Trump has appeared less dogmatic and said he is keeping an “open mind” on the accord. A decision about whether to withdraw from the agreement could come as soon as this week, according to two people familiar with the talks.

Trump is now considering whether or not to pull the USA out of the global climate change agreement with an announcement expected within days.

“And when most of the world’s poor work in agriculture, the stark imbalances that we’ve worked so hard to close between developed and developing countries will be even tougher to close”, Obama said.

Representatives of almost 200 countries that are party to the agreement are meeting in Bonn from May 8-18 to discuss technical aspects of implementing the accord.

The White House had previously said a decision would be reached before Trump’s appearance at the summit.

While campaigning previous year, Trump called climate change a hoax perpetrated by China, and promised to cancel the deal if he won the presidency.

“Having been intensely involved in such negotiations for a long time, there can be no doubt that Paris is utterly nonbinding, and therefore, each country is free to adjust their pledges in accordance with their own national circumstances”, said James Connaughton, who headed up the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President George W. Bush. Ivanka Trump, Secretary of State (and former ExxonMobil CEO) Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis are in favor of the U.S. remaining a signatory.

White House spokesperson Kelly Love confirmed delay, first reported by Politico, in an email to TPM.

The conversation between Macron and Trump is the latest in a series of moves by the worldwide and business community to urge the White House to remain a signatory to the Paris Agreement.

Over the weekend, the EPA administrator released a letter stating that under federal ethics standards he is obligated to recuse himself from legal cases he was involved with in his old job.

China and France “should protect the achievements of global governance, including the Paris Agreement”, the foreign ministry in Beijing quoted Xi as telling his newly-elected counterpart Emmanuel Macron in a phone call. These organizations include the American Energy Alliance, which yesterday said that remaining a party to the treaty would “undermine the Trump administration’s efforts to protect American families from unnecessary and burdensome climate regulations”.

“Here’s a fun fact”, reads one such comment. Her agency’s budget is also up for discussion.

Now, China is among a bunch of countries, along with the European Union, that have specifically and officially asked the Trump administration if it will be meeting its short-term 2020 commitments under a United Nations system of ensuring compliance established by the accord, and how.

Conservatives contend that Trump promised to withdraw from the Paris agreement on the campaign trail and that the political fallout of not withdrawing from the accord would be devastating. The spirit of Paris was for nations to ratchet up their targets.