President Trump won’t make a decision on whether to exit the Paris climate agreement until after he returns from the Group of Seven meeting in Italy being held at the end of the month, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Tuesday at his briefing.
“The president has been meeting with his team for quite a while on this matter and he will not be making an announcement until after he returns from the G-7,” Spicer said.
The president had been expected to make a decision on whether to withdraw from the non-binding, 197-country Paris Agreement as early as the end of this week. He was supposed to meet with his advisers on Tuesday to discuss the agreement, but the talks were canceled.
Spicer said Trump canceled the meeting because he wanted more time to confer with his advisers and Cabinet on the deal before he makes a decision.
It was the second time the White House had postponed discussions on the Paris climate change deal in the last month. The U.S. joined the agreement in December 2015 under former President Barack Obama, and the deal calls for deep cuts in fossil fuel use by the middle of the next decade in an effort to keep global temperatures from rising less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Many climate scientists blame greenhouse gases emitted from burning fossil fuels for driving manmade climate change.
A coalition of dozens of conservative and free-market groups sent a letter to the president Monday to say the best option would be to leave the deal, responding to reports that many of Trump’s advisers want the U.S. to remain a party to the agreement. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt wants the U.S. to withdraw from the agreement, Energy Secretary Rick Perry wants the deal to be renegotiated, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wants the country to remain in the deal.
