Angela Merkel predicts showdown with U.S. over climate at G-20
Source: The Washington Post
Activists wearing masks of (L-R) French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, China's President Xi Jinping and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker hold up a banner reading "G19: Don't Trump our Planet" as they stand next to a giant balloon of the Earth with a haircut alluding to US President Donald Trump in Berlin on June 29. (John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images)
By Isaac Stanley-Becker and Stephanie Kirchner June 29 at 9:35 AM
BERLIN — In forceful remarks before Germany’s Parliament on Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to defend the international climate agreement spurned by the Trump administration, anticipating a difficult meeting of the leaders of the world’s major economies next week in Hamburg.
Despite the withdrawal of the United States, the world’s second-largest polluter, the E.U. remains committed to the Paris climate accord, she said. But she was blunt about the obstacles posed by American retreat from the deal, which was signed by 195 nations in an attempt to forge global consensus around limiting greenhouse gases.
“Since the U.S. announced that it would exit the Paris agreement, we cannot expect any easy talks in Hamburg,” Merkel said, referring to the Group of 20 summit scheduled for July 7-8. “The dissent is obvious, and it would be dishonest to cover it up.”
Without naming him, Merkel appeared to lament President Trump’s uncertainty about human-induced climate change, saying, “We can’t, and we won’t, wait until the last person on earth is convinced of the scientific evidence for climate change.” She said talks in Hamburg must “serve the substance and aims of the Paris accord” and insisted that she would not countenance calls to revise the agreement. She deemed the pact “irreversible.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/angela-merkel-predicts-showdown-over-climate-at-g-20/2017/06/29/76bf6678-5a84-11e7-aa69-3964a7d55207_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop&utm_term=.5924d3b153bf
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