"We're getting out."
US President Donald Trump announced from the White House Rose Garden, his decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord this morning, a major step that fulfills his campaign promises while seriously dampening global efforts to curb global warming.
America First is what Donald Trump promised, and he says it's what he's delivering, with his announcement of withdrawal from the Paris climate accord.
The decision amounts to a rebuttal of the worldwide effort to pressure Trump to remain a part of the agreement, which 195 nations signed onto.
Foreign leaders, business executives and Trump's own daughter lobbied heavily for him to remain a part of the deal, but ultimately lost out to conservatives who claim the plan is bad for the United States.
Trump characterized the Paris agreement as a job killer that placed undue burdens on American taxpayers.
He says that the US has added $3.3 trillion US in stock market value to their economy and more than 1 million private sector jobs since elections last November.
Trump says that compliance with the terms of the Paris Accord and the energy restrictions placed on the United States could cost America as much as 2.7 million lost jobs by 2025.
The US President says this includes automobile jobs and the decimation of vital American industries on which countless communities rely.
Trump says that according to the same study by 2040 compliance with the commitments put into place by the previous administration would cut production for several sectors.
He says paper production in the US will go down by 12 percent, cement down by 23 percent, iron and steel down by 38 percent, coal down by 86 percent and natural gas down by 31 percent.
Trump claims the rival economies like China and India were treated more favourably.
He says that the agreement does not only eliminate coal jobs, it just transfers those jobs out of the United States and ships them to foreign countries and this agreement is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United States.
Trump also highlighted that under the agreement, China will be able to increase these emissions for 13 years and India makes its participation contingent on billions of foreign aid from developed countries.
Trump claims that the Paris accord is very unfair to the highest level to the United States.
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama had made numerous calls for US President Donald Trump not to abandon the Paris Agreement.
As the incoming President of COP 23, the UN climate change conference Bainimarama has appealed to the US President, Donald Trump to “preserve at all costs" the historic achievement that was reached in the French capital in 2015 and the multilateral consensus for decisive action to reduce carbon emissions and arrest the current rate of global warming.
Bainimarama had also called on Donald Trump to not let the whole side down by leaving when we have a clear game plan and have put so many scores on the board.
He said this process will benefit all of the 7.5 billion people on planet earth including citizens in the vulnerable parts of America.
The Paris deal is the world's first comprehensive climate agreement, set out in 2015, with the aim of keeping the global average rise in temperatures below 2C.
In order to do that, countries pledged to reduce their carbon emissions.
But it came into force only after being ratified by 55 countries, which between them produce 55% of global carbon emissions.
