A number of environmental and climate groups responded to reports of President Trump’s imminent decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement by berating the president, calling for sanctions against him, and warning about the grave consequences to the United States.
It’s an “epic blunder,” said David Arkush, managing director of Public Citizen’s climate program, the group founded by former Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.
“Today’s decision is just another sign that Trump is out of touch not only with the global scientific consensus, but also the global political consensus,” Arkush said. “The rest of the world will move on without us.”
The group Friends of the Earth, who was one of the first environmental groups to endorse Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders during the campaign, said Trump’s decision means he is on a “mission to sacrifice our planet” for the fossil fuel industry.
“By pulling out of the Paris Agreement, Trump will make the United States the world’s foremost climate villain,” said Erich Pica, president of the Friends of the Earth.
Pica is even calling on all nations to impose sanctions on the United States in response to Trump’s decision, which the president said he will formally announce in the next couple days.
All nations should “assert heavy economic and diplomatic pressure to compel the Trump administration to take serious climate action to protect people and the planet,” Pica said.
The Environmental Working Group said Trump joins the ranks of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in rejecting the Paris climate deal.
“Pulling the nation out of this pact would only further cement in the minds of Americans and others around the globe that the president has no sense of moral responsibility to protect future generations from the ravages of climate change,” said the group’s president, Ken Cook.
“President Trump’s foolish decision means America is joining Syria and Nicaragua as the only three nations in the world not part of the race to head off one of the most dangerous threats the planet has faced,” Cook said.
Trump is reportedly expected to exit from the Paris climate change deal and is considering two ways in which to do so. One would be to withdraw from the deal under the United Nations process, which would take three years. The second option, and the much more likely one, would be to withdraw from the U.N.’s climate change framework, which underpins the U.S.’s involvement in any and all climate change dealmaking and subsequent coordination.
