President Trump’s team gave notice to the United Nations of his plan to withdraw from the Paris climate deal “as soon as it is eligible to do so,” the State Department announced Friday afternoon.
Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal in June, but that can’t take place until 2020 under the terms of the agreement. At the time, the president suggested his administration might try to renegotiate the deal, but European leaders have resisted that proposal. But the State Department maintains that such a discussion could yet take place.
“[The president] is open to re-engaging in the Paris Agreement if the United States can identify terms that are more favorable to it, its businesses, its workers, its people, and its taxpayers,” the notice said.
That comports with Trump’s denunciation of the agreement, negotiated during former President Barack Obama’s second term, as a drag on the U.S. economy. “The agreement is a massive redistribution of United States wealth to other countries,” Trump said at the White House.
The written notice is the first official statement from the Trump administration about the climate agreement. But as the U.S. can’t formally withdraw until 2020 and can’t officially notify the U.N. about its plans until 2019, the Friday notice will be only symbolic.
Climate policy is one notable area of disagreement between Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May, who rose to power following a Trump-endorsed vote for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.
“I hope they will be able to find a way to come back into the Paris agreement,” May said in July. “I believe it is possible. We are not renegotiating the Paris agreement, that stays, but I want to see the U.S. looking for ways to rejoin it.”
Trump is expected to encourage the export of natural gas, as a more energy-efficient alternative to oil.
“The United States supports a balanced approach to climate policy that lowers emissions while promoting economic growth and ensuring energy security,” the State Department notice said. “We will continue to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions through innovation and technology breakthroughs, and work with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently and deploy renewable and other clean energy sources, given the importance of energy access and security in many nationally determined contributions.”
