TRUMP TO YANK US OUT PARIS CLIMATE CHANGE AGREEMENT

TRUMP TO YANK US OUT PARIS CLIMATE CHANGE AGREEMENT



President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw the United States from the international climate accord known at the Paris Agreement after a period of intense lobbying that spanned the globe.

European allies had begged Trump not to ditch the pact last week in a series of meetings, and the White House said the president was considering their position.

Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka, had advised her father against an exit, as well

The president said Wednesday morning in a tweet that he would be making an announcement 'over the next few days' following a report from Axios that he was moving forward with plans to pull the US from it.

The news outlet said Trump had decided to stick with a campaign promise to pull the US out of the accord that commits participants to drastically reducing greenhouse gases, siding with conservatives in his party over his daughter.



Trump said after his foreign trip that he would make an announcement this week about Paris.

He teased his plans again in a Wednesday morning tweet that said, 'I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!'

Axios reports that Trump has taken a position - it's the method of withdraw that's still being worked out.

The administration is determining between a formal exit from just the Paris Agreement, a process that could take years, and a total rejection of the United Nations climate change framework that serves as the basis for the pact.

US officials insisted that Trump had an 'open mind' on the agreement and wanted to hear from world leaders on the topic as he traveled through Europe.

As his nine days of travel came to a close, Trump's advisers claimed he had not taken a firm position on Paris and would not until he returned to the US.

‘The president is thinking about what his options are and has taken in what he learned from world leaders today,' Trump's chief economic advisor, Gary Cohn, said Friday. ‘I think his views are evolving, and he came here to learn and he came here to get smarter and he came here to hear peoples' - world leaders' - views.'



Trump's most senior aides and cabinet secretaries had lined up on either side of the issue.

Cohn joined Trump's daughter and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Advsior HR McMaster in a campaign to remain in the accord that Barack Obama's administration negotiated.

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and Vice President Mike Pence were strongly against staying in the pact that requires the US to cut emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Domestic Policy Council director Andrew Bremberg, and three senior advisors to the president - Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller - came in behind the Environmental Protection Agency head and the vice president.

A senior official told DailyMail.com as Trump prepared to make his first trip abroad that administration lawyers was battling over a proposal that would allow the US remain in the agreement, even if it does take steps to meet its nationally determined contribution to emissions reduction.

'That is not something that we can support, obviously,' the source said of the Obama-negotiated NDC that starts at 17 percent in 2020 and ramps up.

Some administration lawyers said a strategy like the one that was being debated would create significant legal risk for the United States and it would be better for Trump to stick to his campaign plan of full withdraw.

Kushner is said to be leaning in that direction now, too.

'His basic position is that the standards need to be changed and the question is can you stay in the Paris agreement and can you stay in the Paris agreement with the changes?' an administration official familiar with the situation told DailyMail.com.



As Trump waffled on the issue, conservative heavyweights sent the president a letter reminding him that withdrawal is a 'key part of your plan to protect U.S. energy producers and manufacturers from regulatory warfare.'

The Competitive Enterprise Institute followed up with ads that ran in nearly 70 markets the day before Trump departed for Saudi Arabia urging him to keep his campaign promise to 'cancel' the environmental accord.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Environment and Public Works Chairman John Barrasso, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee an