United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused India, China and Russia of not taking care of the air, while pointing out that America does. The president, who had withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, called it a “one-sided, energy-destroying” pact to fight climate change.
Trump delivered his remarks at a Double Eagle Energy oil rig in Texas and touted his administration’s energy policies ahead of the November presidential elections. “They want us to take care of our air, but China doesn’t take care of its air,” he said in his address. “In all fairness, India doesn’t take care of its air. Russia doesn’t take care of its air. But we do.”
He claimed that “the Washington radical-left, crazy Democrats” would send American jobs, factories and industries to China and other foreign polluting countries. “Not on my watch, it’s not going to happen – I can tell you that,” Trump said. “Because as long as I’m President, we will always put America first. It’s very simple. Very simple. For years and years, we put other countries first, and we now put America first.”
Trump alleged that radical Democrats do not love the country in any way, shape or form. “It’s not just Texas oil that the radical Democrats want to destroy; they want to destroy our country,” he claimed. “These people are sick. They are sick. And you better get used to hearing it because they have some real problems...They don’t love our country. There’s no respect for the American way of life. There is no way of life ever in history that’s been like the great American way of life.”
In November, the Trump administration had withdrawn from the Paris climate accord. It came at time when scientists and activists urged countries to take urgent action to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.
However, Trump claimed that accord was a “disaster” and cost the government billions of dollars. “It would have made us a noncompetitive nation,” he added. “We cancelled the Obama administration’s job-crushing clean power plan.”
Former US President Barack Obama had signed the 2015 pact, promising a 26-28% cut in the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 from 2005 levels. Trump campaigned on a promise to rescind Obama’s pledge, claiming it would hurt the economy while leaving other big polluters like China to increase emissions.
The top four emitters of carbon dioxide in the world in 2017 included China, the US, the European Union and India, PTI reported, citing the projection by the Global Carbon Project in December 2018.
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