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| $100 billions a year for minuscule temperature drop! |
Before we discuss the Paris Accord, I’d like to begin with an update on our tremendous, absolutely tremendous, economic progress since election day on Nov. 8. The economy is starting to come back and very, very rapidly. We’ve added $3.3 trillion in stock market value to our economy and more than a million private sector jobs.
I’ve just returned from a trip overseas where we concluded nearly $350 billion of military and economic development for the United States, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. It was a very, very successful trip, believe me.
In my meetings at the G7, we have taken historic steps to demand fair and reciprocal trade that gives Americans a level playing field against other nations. We’re also working very hard for peace in the Middle East, and perhaps even peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Our attacks on terrorism are greatly stepped up and you see that, you see it all over. From the previous administration, including getting many other countries to make major contributions to the fight against terror. Big big contributions are being made by countries that weren’t doing so much in the form of contribution.
One by one, we are keeping the promises I made to the American people during my campaign for president. Whether it’s cutting job-killing regulations, appointing and confirming a tremendous Supreme Court justice, putting in place tough new ethics rules, achieving a record reduction in illegal immigration on our southern border, or bringing jobs, plants and factories back into the United States at numbers which no one, until this point, thought even possible.
And believe me, we’ve just begun. The fruits of our labor will be seen very shortly, even more so. On these issues, and so many more, we’re following through on our commitments and I don’t want anything to get in our way. I am fighting every day for the great people of this country.
Therefore, in order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you. Thank you.
Thus as of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris Accord and the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country. This includes ending the implementation of the nationally determined contribution and, very importantly, the Green Climate Fund, which is costing the United States a vast fortune.
Compliance with the terms of the Paris Accord and the onerous energy restrictions it has placed on the United States could cost America as much as $2.7 million lost jobs by 2025, according to the National Economic Research Associates.
This includes 440,000 fewer manufacturing jobs – not what we need, believe me, this is not what we need, including automobile jobs and the further decimation of vital American industries on which countless communities rely. They rely for so much and we would be giving them so little.
According to this same study, by 2040, compliance with the commitments put into place by the previous administration, would cut production for the following sectors: Paper – down 12%. Cement – down 23%. Iron and steel – down 38%. Coal – and I happen to love the coal miners – down 86%. Natural gas down 31%.
The cost to the economy at this time would be close to three trillion dollars in lost GDP and 6.5 million industrial jobs, while households would have $7,000 less income and, in many cases, much worse than that.
Not only does this deal subject our citizens to harsh economic restrictions, it fails to live up to our environmental ideals. As someone who cares deeply about the environment, which I do, I cannot in good conscience support a deal that punishes the United States, which is what it does. The world’s leader in environmental protection while imposing no meaningful obligations on the world’s leading polluters.
For example, under the agreement, China will be able to increase the emissions by a staggering number of years – 13. They can do whatever they want for 13 years. Not us. India makes its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries. There are many other examples but the bottom line is that the Paris Accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States.
Further, while the current agreement effectively blocks the development of clean coal in America, which it does and the mines are starting to open up, we’re having a big opening in two weeks, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, so many places. A big opening of a big new mine, it’s unheard of. For many many years, that hasn’t happened. They asked me if I’d go. I’m going to try.
China will be allowed to build hundreds of additional coal plants. So, we can’t build the plants, but they can, according to this agreement. India will be allowed to double its coal production by 2020. Think of it. India can double its coal production. We’re supposed to get rid of ours. Even Europe is allowed to continue construction of coal plants.
In short, the agreement doesn’t eliminate coal jobs. It just transfers those jobs out of America and the United States and ships them to foreign countries. This agreement is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United States. The rest of the world applauded when we signed the Paris Agreement. They went wild. They were so happy.
For the simple reason that it put our country, the United States of America, which we all love, at a very very big economic disadvantage. A cynic would say the obvious reason for economic competitors and their wish to see us remain in the agreement is so that we continue to suffer this self-inflicted, major economic wound. We would find it very hard to compete with other countries from other parts of the world.
We have among the most abundant energy reserves in the planet, sufficient to lift millions of America’s poorest workers out of poverty. Yet under this agreement, we are effectively putting these reserves under lock and key, taking away the great wealth of our nation. It’s great wealth. It’s phenomenal wealth. Not so long ago, we had no idea we had such wealth. And leaving millions and millions of families trapped in poverty and joblessness. The agreement is a massive redistribution of United States’ wealth to other countries.
Our businesses will come to a halt, in many cases, and the American family will suffer the consequences in the form of lost jobs and a very diminished quality of life. Even if the Paris Agreement were implemented in full, with total compliance from all nations, it is estimated it would only produce a 2/10 of one degree – think of that. This much….Celsius reduction in global temperature by the year 2100. Tiny tiny amount.
In fact, fourteen days of carbon emissions from China alone would wipe out the gains from America...and this is an incredible statistic, would totally wipe out the gains from America’s expected reductions in the year 2030. After we’ve had to spend billions and billions of dollars, lost jobs and closed factories and suffered much higher energy cost for our businesses and for our homes.
As the Wall Street Journal wrote this morning, the reality is that withdrawing is in America’s economic interest and won’t matter much to the climate. The United States, under the Trump administration, will continue to be the cleanest and most environmentally-friendly country on earth. We’ll be the cleanest. We’re going to have the cleanest air. We’re going to have the cleanest water. We will be environmentally-friendly but we’re not going to put our business out of work. We’re not going to lose our jobs. We’re going to grow. We’re going to grow rapidly.
And I think you just read, it just came out minutes ago, the Small Business Report, small businesses as of just now are booming...hiring people, one of the best reports they’ve seen in many years.
I’m willing to immediately work with Democratic leaders to either negotiate our way back into Paris under the terms that are fair to the United States and its workers or to negotiate a new deal that protects our country and its taxpayers.
So if the obstructionists want to get together with me, let’s make them non- obstructionists. We will all sit down and we will get back into the deal and we will make it good and we won’t be closing up our factories and we won’t be losing our jobs and we’ll sit down with the Democrats and all of the people who represent either the Paris Accord or something we can do that’s much better than the Paris Accord and I think the people of our country will be thrilled. And I think the people of the world will be thrilled. But until we do that, we’re out of the agreement.
I will work to ensure that America remains the world’s leader on environmental issues but under a framework that is fair and where the burdens and responsibilities are equally shared among the many nations all around the world. No responsible leader can put the workers and the people of their country at this debilitating and tremendous disadvantage.
The fact that the Paris deal hamstrings the United States while empowering some of the world’s top-polluting countries should dispel any doubt as to the real reason why foreign lobbyists wish to keep our magnificent country tied up and bound down by this agreement. It’s to give their country an economic edge over the United States. That’s not going to happen while I’m president. I’m sorry.
My job as president is to do everything within my power to give America a level playing field and to create the economic, regulatory and tax structures that make America the most prosperous and productive country on earth. And with the highest standard of living and the highest standard of environmental protection.
Our tax bill is moving along in Congress, and I believe it’s doing very well. I think a lot of people will be very pleasantly surprised. The Republicans are working very hard. We’d love to have support from the Democrats but we may have to go it alone. But it’s going very well.
The Paris Agreement handicaps the United States’ economy in order to win praise from the very foreign capitals and global activists that have long sought to gain wealth at our country’s expense. They don’t put America first. I do. And I always will.
The same nations asking us to stay in the agreement are the countries that have collectively cost America trillions of dollars through tough trade practices and, in many cases, lax contributions to our critical military alliance. You see what’s happening. It’s pretty obvious to those that want to keep an open mind.
At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us, as a country? We want fair treatment for its citizens and we want fair treatment for our taxpayers. We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore. And they won’t be. They won’t be. I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.
I promised I would exit and renegotiate any deal which fails to serve America’s interest. Many trade deals will soon be under renegotiation. Very rarely do we have a deal that works rot his country. But they’ll soon be under renegotiation. The process has begun from day one.
But now we’re down to business. Beyond the severe energy restrictions inflicted by the Paris accord, it includes yet another scheme to redistribute wealth out of the United States through the so-called Green Climate Fund, nice name, which calls for developed countries to send $100 billion to developing countries, all on top of America’s existing and massive foreign aid payments.
So we’re going to be paying billions and billions and billions of dollars and we’re already way ahead of anyone else. Many other countries haven’t spent anything. And many of them will never pay one dime.
The Green Fund would likely obligate the United States to commit potentially tens of billions of dollars, of which the United States has already handed over $1 billion. Nobody else is even close. Most of them haven’t even paid anything. Including funds raided out of America’s budget for the war against terrorism. That’s where they came. Believe me, they didn’t come from me. They came just before I came into office. Not good. And not good the way they took the money.
In 2015, the United Nations’ departing top climate officials reportedly described the 100 billion dollars per year as “peanuts.” And stated that the 100 billion dollars is the tail that wags the dog. In 2015, the Green Climate Fund’s executive director reportedly stated that estimated funding needed would increase to $450 billion per year after 2020 and nobody even knows where the money is going to. Nobody’s been able to say, where is it going to?
Of course, the world’s top polluters have no affirmative obligations under the Green Fund, which we terminated. America is twenty trillion dollars in debt, cash-strapped cities cannot hire enough police officers or fix vile infrastructure, millions of our citizens are out of work and yet, under the Paris Accord, billions of dollars that ought to be invested right there in America, will be sent to the very countries that have taken our factories and our jobs away from us. So think of that. There are serious legal and constitutional issues as well.
Foreign leaders in Europe, Asia and across the world should not have more to say with respect to the U.S. economy than our own citizens and their elected representatives. Thus our withdrawal from the agreement represents a reassertion of America’s sovereignty.
Our Constitution is unique among all nations of the world and it is my highest obligation and greatest honor to protect it. And I will. Staying in the agreement could also pose serious obstacles for the United States as we begin the process of unlocking the restrictions on America’s abundant energy reserves, which we have started, very strongly.
It would once have been unthinkable that an international agreement could prevent the United States from conducting its own domestic economic affairs. But this is the new reality we face if we do not leave the agreement or if we do not negotiate a far better deal.
The risks grow as historically, these agreements only tend to become more and more ambitious over time. In other words, the Paris framework is just a starting point, as bad as it is. Not an end point. And exiting the agreement protects the United States from future intrusions on the United States’ sovereignty and massive future legal liability. Believe me, we have massive legal liability if we stay in.
As president, I have one obligation and that obligation is to the American people. The Paris Accord would undermine our economy, hamstring our workers, weaken our sovereignty, impose unacceptable legal risk and put us at a permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world.
It is time to exit the Paris Accord. And time to pursue a new deal that protects the environment, our companies, our citizens and our country. It is time to put Youngstown, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; and Pittsburgh, Pa.; along with many many other locations in our country, before Paris, France. It is time to make America great again.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Very important.
Current and former officials at the United Nations responded negatively to President Trump’s announcement Thursday that the U.S. is pulling out of the Paris climate accord — with one senior U.N. adviser calling Trump “an idiot” and a former climate envoy saying the U.S. is now “a rogue state.”
Jeffrey Sachs, an economist and senior adviser to the U.N. Secretary-General since 2002, told Bloomberg Television Friday that President Trump lives in a “dream world” and is an “idiot” for his decision to pull out of the treaty. He also blamed the decision on the left’s favorite boogeymen — the Koch Brothers.
“This is all about the Koch brothers, I’m sorry to say it, they have bought and purchased the top of the Republican Party,” Sachs said, pointing also to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) support of Trump’s position.
Sach’s Koch claim is particularly unusual in that President Trump and the Koch Brothers have frequently clashed on a number of issues. The conservative patriarchs refused to back Trump in 2016, while Trump mocked conservatives who sought their backing — once accusing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) of being their “puppet.”
Sachs, who was retained by current Secretary-General António Guterres this year, is known for his anti-Trump views. In April, he wrote a column titled: “Donald Trump’s Climate Fantasies.”
“In less than 100 days, we have learned that Trump is a man living in a fantasy world. He issues decrees, barks orders, sends out midnight Tweets, but to no avail. The facts – real ones, not his ‘alternative’ variety – keep intervening,” Sachs wrote. He has also called Trump a “non-stop font of lies” in a column in March.
Sachs’ remarks come after a former U.N. special envoy on climate change, Mary Robinson, said the decision makes “a rogue state on the international stage.” It isn’t the first time Robinson, a former president of Ireland, has made such remarks.
Secretary-General Guterres was more restrained in his language, calling Trump’s decision “a major disappointment.” “The decision by the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change is a major disappointment for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security,” Guterres’ spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement Thursday.
However, he remained optimistic and
said he “looks forward to engaging with the American government and all actors
in the United States and around the world to build the sustainable future on
which our grandchildren depend.”
