Germany on Tuesday said President Trump’s decision to formally pull out of the landmark Paris climate agreement was “regrettable,” but not unexpected.
German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze noted that the U.S. said two years ago that it would remove itself from the global climate change pact signed by every other country in the world, adding that “luckily it has remained alone in doing so,” The Associated Press reports.
Schulze also said the “domino effect” that some worried would take place after Trump’s announcement didn’t happen.
“The rest of the world stands together on climate protection,” she said, adding that even Russia has recently joined the agreement, according to the AP.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the Trump administration’s move on Monday, saying the president “made the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement because of the unfair economic burden imposed on American workers, businesses, and taxpayers by U.S. pledges made under the Agreement.”{mosads}
The agreement allowed the U.S. to begin the process to withdraw on Monday and would finalize the U.S. exit from the agreement on Nov. 4, 2020 — just one day after the presidential election.
Trump first made the promise to withdraw from the Obama-era deal — which requires the U.S. to reduce emissions about 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 — in the White House Rose Garden in 2017 and has repeatedly boasted about already withdrawing the U.S. from the deal.
The move was met with widespread backlash from Democrats. Recommitting the U.S. to the Paris climate accord has become a major priority for the party’s 2020 presidential candidates, most of whom have said they would do so their very first day in office.