G-20 leaders agree on trade, Trump bucks others on climate

Leaders of the Group of 20 (G-20) nations on Saturday signed off on a final statement pledging to fix the world trading system, with all but President Trump also expressing support for the Paris climate agreement.

The statement finalized after the two-day summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, calls for reforming the World Trade Organization but does not mention protectionism because the U.S. resisted those discussions, according to The Associated Press.

The statement also says that 19 leaders reaffirmed their commitment to fighting climate change through the Paris agreement, with Trump being the sole holdout.

{mosads}The agreement is nonbinding.

Trump has long bashed the 2015 Paris accord, which was negotiated under the Obama administration, and announced the United States’s exit from the agreement last year.

He has also pushed back on the findings of a report released by his administration last week outlining the potentially devastating consequences of climate change.

Trump disputed the scientific consensus that human activity contributes to climate change during an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday.

“One of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence but we’re not necessarily such believers,” Trump said. “You look at our air and our water and it’s right now at a record clean.”

Trump is scheduled to hold a highly anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping later on Saturday in Buenos Aires amid an escalating trade battle that has seen both nations announce tariffs worth billions of dollars against each other.