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US President Donald Trump said he will withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to global efforts to slow global warming after the hottest year on record.
The move was announced on Monday after Trump was sworn in and replaced Joe Biden as President of the United States.
“President Trump will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement,” the White House said in an email containing the new administration’s priorities less than half an hour after the new president took office.
America's exit from the 2015 agreement, signed by nearly 200 countries, means that the world's largest historical polluter will once again back away from its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Rachel Cletus, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the US withdrawal was a “farce” and a “clear defiance of scientific facts.”
Trump said at his inauguration ceremony that he would seek to make the most of the United States' oil and gas reserves.
The United States is the only country to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, under the first Trump administration in 2017. But it rejoined under Biden in 2021. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro also threatened to withdraw from the agreement, but did not follow through.
This is a developing story
