Seattle mayor reacts to Trump’s climate pact decision

President Donald Trump said Thursday he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, striking a major blow to worldwide efforts to combat climate change and distancing the country from many allies abroad. He said the U.S. would try to negotiate re-entry on better terms.

Read the Paris Agreement

“As of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the nonbinding Paris accord,” Trump said during a White House Rose Garden announcement. Suggesting renegotiating re-entry was not a major priority, he said, “If we can, great. If we can’t, that’s fine.”

White House talking points obtained by The Associated Press say that the Paris accord “is a BAD deal for Americans” and that the president’s action would keep “his campaign promise to put American workers first.”

“The Accord,” the document goes on to say, “was negotiated poorly by the Obama Administration and signed out of desperation.”

“The U.S. is already leading the world in energy production and doesn’t need a bad deal that will harm American workers,” it reads.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and Councilmember Mike O’Brien reacted shortly after:

Climate change threatens every part of our lives, from the air we breathe, to the food we eat, to resilience of our cities and infrastructure,” Murray said. “The United States led the world in developing the Paris Agreement, but President Trump’s reversal not only weakens U.S. leadership, but hurts our ability to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Our country, and our planet, have already paid the price for years of inaction on climate change and our children will look back on this day asking how a world leader could be so callous as to threaten their future. Going backward is not an option, which is why cities like Seattle will fill the void left by President Trump by keeping our commitments to the Paris Agreement. Seattle will pass a resolution affirming this commitment and signaling our readiness to create a cleaner, healthier environment.

O’Brien said:

Last year I joined Gov. Inslee and other local leaders in Paris,” said Councilmember O’Brien. “It served as a painful reminder that climate change is the most urgent challenge facing humankind. To mitigate the pollution causing climate change, Seattle and other cities around the world need to continue adopting the goals advanced by the Paris Agreement. More than half the world’s population lives in urban areas. We also know that cities account for almost two-thirds of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. No matter who occupies the White House, cities can be the incubators for the solutions to climate change, and can continue to resist Trump’s planet-destroying agenda.

Seattle leaders say they have been committed to addressing the issue of climate change by reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainability.

In 2016, according to the city, Mayor Murray launched Drive Clean Seattle to leverage Seattle’s clean electricity across the transportation sector to accelerate the City’s transition away from oil, with a goal to reduce greenhouse gas pollution from the City fleet by 50 percent by 2025. Murray has also signed agreements with various cities around the world, calling for more collaboration on climate change.

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Abandoning the pact was one of Trump’s principal campaign pledges, but America’s allies have expressed alarm about the likely consequences. Top White House aides have been divided. Aides have been deliberating on “caveats in the language,” one official said.

The White House invited representatives from several groups that support withdrawing from the Paris accord, including staff from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with close ties to the administration, and Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank that gets financial support from the fossil fuel industry.

Trump had several potential options. Some of his aides have been searching for a middle ground in an effort to thread the needle between his base of supporters who oppose the deal for fear it will hamper U.S. economic growth and those warning that a U.S. exit would deal a blow to the fight against global warming as well as to worldwide U.S. leadership.

Under the agreement, the U.S. had agreed to reduce the country’s pollution emissions to 26 percent to 28 percent of 2005 levels by 2025 — about 1.6 billion tons. Countries are permitted under the treaty to change their goals and there is no punishment for missing targets.

Pulling out of the agreement outright will take three-and-a-half years under the standard cooling-off period for new international treaties.

Abandoning the Paris pact will isolate the U.S. from a raft of international allies who spent years negotiating the 2015 agreement to fight global warming and pollution by reducing carbon emissions in nearly 200 nations. While traveling abroad last week, Trump was repeatedly pressed to stay in the deal by European leaders and the pope. Withdrawing will leave the United States aligned only with Russia among the world’s industrialized economies.

American corporate leaders have also appealed to the businessman-turned-president to stay in the pact. They include Apple, Google and Walmart. Even fossil fuel companies such as Exxon Mobil, BP and Shell say the United States should abide by the deal.

In a Berlin speech, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that fighting climate change is a “global consensus” and an “international responsibility.”

“China in recent years has stayed true to its commitment,” said Li, speaking in Berlin Wednesday.

Trump met Wednesday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has favored remaining in the agreement. Chief strategist Steve Bannon supports an exit, as does Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.

Trump’s chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, has discussed the possibility of changing the U.S. carbon reduction targets instead of pulling out of the deal completely. Senior adviser Jared Kushner generally thinks the deal is bad but still would like to see if emissions targets can be changed.

Scientists say Earth is likely to reach more dangerous levels of warming sooner if the U.S. retreats from its pledge because America contributes so much to rising temperatures. Calculations suggest withdrawal could result in emissions of up to 3 billion tons of additional carbon dioxide in the air a year — enough to melt ice sheets faster, raise seas higher and trigger more extreme weather.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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