PARIS -- Environmental campaigners protested Friday against President Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, while nations around the world pledged to double down on their efforts to curb global warming in response to the U.S. move.
While Trump argued that the landmark 2015 accord hurts U.S. jobs and business, others took a more global view. The French president's call to #MakeOurPlanetGreatAgain reached a wide audience online, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it's time to look ahead.
In Berlin, Greenpeace activists projected Trump's silhouette onto the side of the U.S. Embassy along with the words "#TotalLoser, so sad!"
Hours later, Merkel summoned reporters for an impromptu statement in which she called Trump's decision "extremely regrettable, and that's putting it very mildly."
[INTERACTIVES: Charts, maps show global warming’s effects]
"This decision can't and won't stop all those of us who feel obliged to protect the planet," said Merkel, whose country hosts this year's international climate summit. "On the contrary. We in Germany, Europe and the world will combine our forces more resolutely than ever to address and successfully tackle challenges for humanity such as climate change."
In Brussels, European Council President Donald Tusk, standing alongside Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, said that the EU and China "are convinced that yesterday's decision by the United States to leave the Paris agreement is a big mistake."
Referring to "the latest unfortunate decisions of the new administration," Tusk said the EU and China had "demonstrated solidarity with future generations and responsibility for the whole planet" by reaffirming their climate-change commitment.
Anticipating a possible U.S. pullout, officials from China and the European Union -- two of the world's major polluters -- have prepared a declaration reaffirming their commitment to the 2015 Paris Agreement, which is widely considered a landmark deal for bringing together almost all countries under a common goal.
[PRESIDENT TRUMP: Timeline, appointments, executive orders + guide to actions in first 100 days]
Trump said the United States would be willing to rejoin the accord if it could obtain more favorable terms, but the leaders of France, Germany and Italy said in a joint statement Thursday that the agreement cannot be renegotiated, "since it is a vital instrument for our planet, societies and economics."
Germany's environment minister, Barbara Hendricks, told reporters in Berlin that other countries will fill the leadership vacuum but none will be expected to make up the shortfall in emissions reductions caused by Washington's exit.
Hendricks said the absence of $500 million in contributions from the United States to the Green Climate Fund will be felt from 2018, but suggested the gap could be filled with "other financing mechanisms, for example through the World Bank."
The Green Fund is designed to help poor countries adapt to climate change and bypass some of the heavily polluting technologies formerly used by rich countries.
Nations around the world are protesting Trump's decision.
South Africa's government called the U.S. pullout "an abdication of global responsibility," adding that the U.S. has a "moral obligation" to support poorer countries in the global effort against climate change.
Poor countries are predicted to be among the hardest hit by global warming, with some foreseeing tens of millions of "climate refugees" in coming decades.
In Tokyo, Japan's environment minister, Koichi Yamamoto, said: "The decision made by American President Trump amounts to turning their backs on the wisdom of humanity. I'm not just disappointed but also feel anger."
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox also criticized Trump's move, saying on Twitter: "He's declaring war on the planet itself."
In Paris, President Emmanuel Macron encouraged an American brain drain, inviting U.S. climate scientists to move to France instead.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo insisted that clean energy is already creating jobs and boosting economies, contrary to Trump's claims, and called him "a representative of a world gone by, a world that is looking back in the rearview mirror and does not see what is happening today."
She shrugged off Trump's remark that he was elected to represent the people of Pittsburgh, not Paris.
"He must be the only person on the planet who doesn't like Paris," Hidalgo joked.
India, a major polluter with a growing economy, has kept mum on whether the U.S. decision will affect its energy policy, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- who was to meet Macron today in Paris -- offered no reaction to Trump's decision.
supporters weigh in
Trump's supporters on Friday cast his decision to abandon the world's climate-change pact as a "refreshing" stance for the U.S. that would save jobs and unburden industry.
In television interviews the morning after Trump's announcement, Vice President Mike Pence and Kellyanne Conway, a senior White House aide, defended Trump's decision as a reassertion of America's sovereignty. They both appeared on Fox News' Fox & Friends.
Pence called Trump's decision "refreshing." The Paris deal "really put an extraordinary burden on the American economy while allowing some countries around the world like China and India to literally go a decade or more without any accountability for reducing CO2 emissions," Pence said.
He said the deal would have cost taxpayers billions of dollars. "In a very real sense, it was a transfer of wealth from the most powerful economy in the world to other countries around the planet," Pence said.
Conway made similar remarks in an interview on Fox News, citing "fairness" to American workers and businesses.
Trump's environmental chief, Scott Pruitt, was asked Friday in a news briefing about Trump's views on the origins of global warming.
"All the discussions we've had for the last several weeks" have focused strictly on whether Paris was a good deal for America, Pruitt said. When it was pointed out that he still hadn't answered the question, Pruitt responded: "I did answer the question."
The White House indicated it would follow the lengthy exit process outlined in the deal. That means the U.S. would remain in the agreement, at least formally, for 3½ years, ensuring the issue remains alive in the next presidential election.
Trump's climate reversal is a challenge to his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who is still working to establish his credibility as an advocate of U.S. foreign policy.
"I don't think we're going to change our ongoing efforts to reduce those emissions in the future," Tillerson said Friday, playing down the president's decision. "So hopefully people can keep it in perspective."
Tillerson, who skipped the Rose Garden ceremony where Trump announced his decision, called Trump's action a "policy decision." He insisted the U.S. should be proud of its "terrific record" in cutting greenhouse-gas emissions, even before the Paris pact took effect late last year under President Barack Obama.
This weekend, Tillerson visits Australia and New Zealand. Both countries have been outspoken in their climate-change concerns and support for the Paris agreement.
Scientists say the earth is likely to reach more dangerous levels of warming sooner as a result of the president's decision because America's pollution contributes so much to rising temperatures. Calculations suggest withdrawal from the Paris accord could result in emissions of up to 3 billion tons of additional carbon dioxide a year -- enough to melt ice sheets faster, raise seas higher and trigger more extreme weather.
A top atmospheric scientist at the U.N.'s weather agency said Friday that the "worst-case scenario" caused by the planned U.S. pullout from the Paris climate deal would be a further 0.3 degree Celsius -- or 0.5 Fahrenheit -- rise in global temperatures by 2100.
Deon Terblanche of the World Meteorological Organization said the organization hasn't run any new scientific models after Trump's announcement.
The Paris accord aims to prevent average temperature around the world from heating up by more than 2 degrees Celsius -- about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit -- before the end of the century, compared with before the start of the industrial age.
execs step away
At home in the U.S., the business community lashed back at Trump's decision, as two high-profile executives quit the president's advisory council.
Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger and Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk both withdrew from a presidential jobs panel.
Another member of the presidential advisory council, Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., spoke about the president's decision at Friday's annual stockholders meeting in Fayetteville.
"We are disappointed by that decision, and the administration is aware of that," he said.
He said that he does not plan to withdraw from the presidential panel.
"There will be other issues that come up," he said. "Engagement gives us a chance to do good things and share a point of view, and I want to keep doing that."
Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, in a letter to employees, said he spoke to Trump on Tuesday to try to talk him out of a withdrawal "but it wasn't enough."
Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein took to Twitter for the first time ever to express disapproval.
"Today's decision is a setback for the environment and for the U.S.'s leadership position in the world," Blankfein wrote.
While Blankfein doesn't serve on any of Trump's advisory councils, his former Goldman Sachs colleagues in the administration include Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and Dina Powell, a deputy national security adviser. Steve Bannon, who left the bank more than two decades ago, is Trump's chief strategist.
General Electric, Ford, Dow Chemical and Microsoft also weighed in with their dismay.
In addition, a growing list of mayors has strongly opposed Trump's withdrawal, with many city leaders vowing to continue efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions blamed for global warming.
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said Friday that he will join dozens of other mayors in upholding the principles of the Paris accord.
Stodola said in a news release that he and 61 U.S. mayors signed a statement through the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda to inform Trump of their plan to "continue America's leadership on climate change" within their cities.
In the coming months, Stodola said, he will work with his sustainability commission to develop ways that Little Rock can "do its part to honor the commitment to the goals of the Paris Agreement."
"President Trump's political decision, contrary to the wishes of the United States and global science and business communities, the American people, mayors, the majority of Congress, his own Secretary of State, the U.S. military, and many more, places the United States with only Nicaragua and Syria as non signatories," Stodola said.
"As cities, we will not let the decision stand in the way of us tackling this environmental, economic, and national security issue for our children and grandchildren. We will continue to take action."
Information for this article was contributed by Lorne Cook, Angela Charlton, Frank Jordans, Baba Ahmed, Ian Phillips, Eldar Emric, Jamey Keaten, Cara Anna, Raf Casert, Jill Colvin, Ken Thomas, Erica Werner, Vivian Salama, Julie Pace, Michael Biesecker, Seth Borenstein, Darlene Superville, Josh Lederman and Matthew Lee of The Associated Press; by Joe Carroll, Richard Clough and Mary Schlangenstein of Bloomberg News; by Robbie Neiswanger of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; and by Emma Pettit of Arkansas Online.
A Section on 06/03/2017