Political Minefield
The appointment of François Bayrou as France’s new Prime Minister highlights the formidable challenges facing the country as it struggles with political gridlock, economic uncertainty, and public discontent.
The Trump administration’s decision to formally notify the United Nations on Monday that it was withdrawing from the Paris climate accord was lamented by France. The notification begins a one-year process of exiting the global climate change accord, culminating the day after the 2020 US election.
While the move was expected, “we regret this and it makes the Franco-Chinese partnership on climate and biodiversity even more necessary”, the French presidency said as President Emmanuel Macron was on an official trip to China.
The agreement brought together 188 nations to combat climate change. It committed the US under Barack Obama’s leadership, and 187 other countries to keeping rising global temperatures below 2C above pre-industrial levels and attempting to limit them even more, to a 1.5C rise.
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Macron and President Xi Jinping will sign a joint document on climate during talks in Beijing on Wednesday that will declare the “irreversibility of the Paris accord”, the French presidency said.
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President Donald Trump went ahead with the pullout despite mounting evidence of the reality and impact of climate change, with September the fourth month in the row with near- or record-breaking temperatures. Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned Trump’s “disastrous decision that sells out our children’s future,” in her statement on Tuesday.
.@realDonaldTrump’s decision to formally pull the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement is another disastrous decision that sells out our children’s future. Democrats will continue to call for #ClimateActionNow to protect the people & places we love. https://t.co/MG8316gdAe
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) November 4, 2019
The United States presented its withdrawal letter to the United Nations on the first possible date under the accord negotiated by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.
It will be officially out of the Paris accord on November 4, 2020, one day after the US election in which Trump is seeking a second term. Announcing the move, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated Trump’s remarks in 2017 that the agreement imposed an “unfair economic burden” on the United States.
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