PARIS — A Malian cattle herder, German environmental activists, leaders from Mexico to China — they’re among millions on Friday denouncing President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord. Many nations pledged to ramp up their efforts to curb global warming instead.
Some allies pointedly refrained from criticism, however, and Russian President Vladimir Putin even joked that Trump’s move made him a convenient scapegoat for any bad weather.
While Trump argued the landmark 2015 accord hurts U.S. jobs and business, others took a more global view. The French president’s call to #MakeOurPlanetGreatAgain went viral online, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it’s time to look ahead.
“This decision can’t and won’t stop all those of us who feel obliged to protect the planet,” she said. “On the contrary. We in Germany, Europe and the world will combine our forces more resolutely than ever to address and successfully tackle challenges for humanity such as climate change.”
Merkel, whose country hosts this year’s international climate summit, called Trump’s decision “extremely regrettable, and that’s putting it very mildly.”
Greenpeace activists projected Trump’s silhouette onto the side of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin along with the words “#TotalLoser, so sad!”
In what could herald a tilt away from trans-Atlantic ties, European and Chinese officials joined to affirm their commitment to the Paris agreement, widely considered a landmark deal for bringing together almost all countries under a common goal.
European Council chief Donald Tusk, after meeting with visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Brussels, said the EU and China “are convinced that yesterday’s decision by the United States to leave the Paris agreement is a big mistake.”
Referring to “the latest unfortunate decisions of the new administration,” Tusk said that the EU and China had “demonstrated solidarity with future generations.”
Trump said the United States would be willing to rejoin the accord if it could obtain more favorable terms, but the leaders of France, Germany and Italy said in a joint statement that the agreement cannot be renegotiated.
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said on Twitter that Trump is “declaring war on the planet itself.”
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo insisted that clean energy is already creating jobs and boosting economies, contrary to Trump’s claims, and called him “a representative of a world gone by, a world that is looking back in the rear-view mirror and does not see what is happening today.”