House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared at the U.N. conference in Madrid that the United States would continue to work internationally to fight climate change, despite President Trump beginning U.S. withdrawal from the Paris agreement.
“By coming here we want to say to everyone, we’re still in,” the California Democrat said at a Monday press conference. “The United States is still in.”
“Our delegation is here to send a message that Congress’s commitment to take action on the climate crisis is ironclad,” she added. Pelosi called climate change an “existential threat to humanity.”
Last month, the Trump administration started the process to leave the Paris climate agreement, a move he first announced in 2017. “President Trump made the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement because of the unfair economic burden imposed on American workers, businesses, and taxpayers by U.S. pledges made under the Agreement,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
The official start of the process means the U.S. could be out of the agreement as early as the day after the 2020 election. The State Department plans on continuing to send delegations to international climate talks.
[Read more: ‘We aren’t here to talk about impeachment’: Pelosi shuts down partisan talk overseas]
