Obama slams Trump over Paris Climate Accord pullout

New York [U.S.], June 2 (ANI): Former President Barack Obama has criticised President Donald Trump over his decision to pull the United States out from the Paris climate agreement. Obama alleged that Trump has joined a small handful of nations that reject the future. The former US President said the accord in fact "opened the floodgates" to jobs as opposed to Trump's assumptions of it being the economic drag. "A year and a half ago, the world came together in Paris around the first-ever global agreement to set the world on a low-carbon course and protect the world we leave to our children," the abc news quoted Obama as saying. President Donald Trump has announced "We're getting out" of the Paris Climate Accord as the "2015 agreement was detrimental to the US economy". "In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord, but being negotiations to reenter, either the Paris accord or an entirely new transaction under terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers , its people , its taxpayers," Trump said from the White House Rose Garden. He announced this decision from the same place where former US President Barack Obama hailed the agreement as "a turning point for our planet." With this announcement, President Trump fulfills his campaign promises while seriously dampening global efforts to curb global warming. Before Trump announced his decision, giant companies like Apple, Google, Twitter, Amazon, Facebook, Tesla, Microsoft and IBM released a full page advertisement in New York Times and urged Trump to "keep the United States in the Paris Agreement on climate change". The 197-member climate agreement requires every country to establish ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gasses. But those targets are largely voluntary, and Trump has already made clear that he views environmental regulations as an obstacle to his goal of creating jobs and ensuring energy independence. Trump stated: "US will cease all implementation of the non-binding draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country." This ended implementation of national contribution from immediate effect and the Green climate fund which is costing the US." It is pertinent to mention that ceasing U.S. payments to the fund were part of his budget released last month." (ANI)