US to withdraw from Paris Climate Accord: Trump (Lead)

Washington June 2 (IANS) The US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that the US is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement due to the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes.

As of today the US will cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris accord he said in an address at the White House.

He said the US will begin negotiations to re-enter the Paris Agreement on terms that are fair to the US.

We will be environmentally friendly but we re not going to put our businesses out of work... We re going to grow rapidly he said.

According to a report in CNN the decision amounts to a rebuttal of the worldwide effort to pressure Trump to remain a part of the agreement which 195 nations signed onto.

Many foreign leaders business executives and even his own daughter lobbied heavily for him to remain a part of the deal.

However he ultimately lost out to conservatives who claimed Paris Climate Accord was bad for the US.

The vacuum that would be created has to be filled and Europe has aspirations for a natural leadership in this whole process the report quoted European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as saying.

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