Trump announced Thursday from the White House that he will be pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, an accord that mandates members reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The deal, he said, would not be "fair" to American taxpayers and workers. It would cost far too many jobs, he noted, cutting production of paper, cement, iron and steel, etc.
Before Trump came to his decision, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told President Trump that leaving the Paris climate accord is not as easy as he thinks. Some may interpret his warning as a lecture.
“It’s not possible that one leaves this climate agreement overnight, as some people in the United States think,” Juncker told a conference at the German foreign ministry on Thursday. “This takes three, four years — which is laid down in the agreement itself.”
Junker continued to argue that if Trump follows through and takes the U.S. out of the agreement, it will leave a "vacuum" on the world stage that the Chinese would be happy to fill.
Trump received similar advice from American politicians like Mitt Romney, who urged him to stay in the deal to maintain the U.S.'s status as a world power.
Yet, Trump appears to have no regrets. A job-killing deal is "not what we need," he said Thursday.
