Climate change is strictly a business relationship between France and the U.S., French President Emmanuel Macron said at the White House on Tuesday.
“We know where we stand,” Macron said at a joint press conference with President Trump. “But I think I can say that our businesses, our researchers can continue to work on, can create solutions in the field. We are both attached to that.”
Trump said nothing about climate change or his stated goal of withdrawing completely from the 2015 Paris climate change agreement during the press conference.
Macron said France would continue to do work through the United Nations process on implementing the climate deal.
“France will continue to work on major pieces, including the global compact for the environment,” Macron said.
Former Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday that he doubted Trump would change his stance on the Paris Agreement.
“I don’t think he’s going to change on that,” Gore said at an Axios event Tuesday morning.
Even with the one-year anniversary of Trump withdrawing from the Paris climate deal approaching on June 1, the U.N. process for leaving the accord is a multi-year affair that could mean little for Trump in the end, Gore said.
“The first day on which the U.S. could legally withdraw from the Paris Agreement happens to be the day after the next presidential election,” Gore said. “The new president could give 30 days notice and the U.S. is right back in the agreement.”
Macron knows it will take at least three more years for Trump to pull the U.S. out of the deal. He also knows that Trump can’t renegotiate the terms of the U.S. obligations under Paris, because under the non-binding Paris agreement, a country can only increase its obligation to cut emissions, which Trump doesn’t appear willing to do.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who, unlike Macron, does not have a great rapport with Trump, will be in Washington on Friday. The talks are supposed to center on tariffs and Iran, but there may be some room for climate change. Germany is a top supporter of the Paris deal.
On the business side, the Trump administration led a trade delegation to Saudi Arabia this week to discuss the sale of nuclear energy components from U.S.-based companies. Nuclear energy is a zero-emission resource.
The trip came as Saudi Arabia’s environment ministry kicked off its first sustainability conference on the effects of climate change as part of its major Vision 2030 plan to diversify the country’s economy.
At the same time, officials from the European Union were in Egypt to discuss clean energy cooperation. The European Commission wants access to the country’s huge natural gas resources from the Zohr gas field, which is one of the largest new natural gas finds in the world. The natural gas likely will help France’s economy and climate goals.
