World rallies around Paris pact
U.S. President Donald Trump faced a global tongue-lashing Friday as big business and leaders in China and Europe united to condemn him for his decision to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris climate accord.
In a sign of how Trump's nationalist vision is shaking old geopolitical assumptions, the leaders of the European Union and China, backed by India and Japan, announced they would fully implement the Paris deal despite Washington's decision.
Donald Tusk, the European Council president, said after a Brussels summit with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang that the EU and China would “step up co-operation” on climate, adding that both sides were convinced the U.S. decision was “a big mistake.”
Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said there were signs the U.S. wanted to “untie itself from international connections,” a change that necessitated boosting the EU relationship with China.
International relations experts said China was seeking to capitalize on America's self-imposed isolation, as China's official media described Trump's decision as a “global setback” and accused the U.S. of being “reckless” and “crippling the country's world leadership.”
Eschewing direct attacks on Washington, Li noted new global “uncertainties” while reiterating that China was committed to the world “on the basis of the existing system” — in implicit contrast to Trump's “America First” approach to global issues such as trade and climate.
German chancellor Angela Merkel said the U.S. stance was “extremely regrettable” and promised to press ahead with honouring German commitments to the deal. The pastor's daughter said the accord was necessary “to preserve our Creation” and protect “Mother Earth.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May and the leaders of Japan — key strategic allies of Washington — declined to criticize Trump and sign a joint Italian-French-German statement condemning the White House.
However, out on the campaign trail, May denied she was “subservient” to Trump, saying she had “made the U.K.'s position” clear to the president in a phone call on Thursday when she had stressed the U.K.'s commitment to the deal.
Canada's environment minister, Catherine McKenna, said Trump's decision was “deeply disappointing,” and suggested Trump is costing the U.S. a golden opportunity to profit from the inevitable growth of clean-tech initiatives around the globe.
“The clean-growth economy is where the world is going and Canada is going to be part of it,” McKenna said.
Trump's decision to quit the accord came despite the advice and pleading of European, Canadian and Japanese leaders and was also condemned in the U.S., including by leading voices in business.