Syria announced on Tuesday that it would be joining the Paris climate change agreement, leaving the United States as the only remaining country opposed to the deal after President Trump’s June 1 decision to exit from the accord.
“There has been no change in the United States position on the Paris agreement,” said White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “As the president previously stated, the United States is withdrawing unless we can re-enter on terms more favorable for our country.”
The U.S. and Syria were the only remaining holdouts to the agreement after Nicaragua joined the Paris deal last month.
Syria made the announcement during a session at the COP23 United Nations climate change talks in Bonn, Germany, that began Monday and ends Nov. 17, according to the New York Times.
“This is the very last country that actually announced, so everyone has joined and the U.S. is now so isolated,” said Safa Al Jayoussi, the executive director of IndyAct, an environmental group that works with Arab countries on climate change.
The meeting is meant to shore up the commitments made by nearly 200 countries to meet the Paris climate agreement of reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next two decades to stop the temperature of the Earth from rising 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The U.N. report released ahead of the meeting that, so far, the Paris deal will result in the temperature of the Earth rising three degrees.
A key focus of the meeting is to measure the impact the U.S.’s withdrawal from the pact and find a way to fill that gap in commitments caused by Trump’s announcement.
U.S. officials are at the meeting only as observers.
