G20 summit: Trump says no to Paris climate deal

Nineteen members of the Group of 20, without the United States, agreed on Saturday  to the “irreversibility” of the Paris climate deal and pledged its full implementation, after two days of talks.

The language in the final statement after the summit in Japan’s Osaka mirrors that agreed during last year’s G-20 meeting, but was hard-won after objections from the United States.

President Donald Trump again split from other G-20 nations over climate change, rebuffing the need for the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions.

Negotiators had worked through the night to try and reach agreement on the communique released on Saturday after the G-20 summit. The so-called 19+1 formula on climate change is similar to what was agreed at the gathering last year in Argentina.

“The United States reiterates its decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement because it disadvantages American workers and taxpayers,” the document says. It also says the US “is a world leader in reducing emissions” and is committed to deploying advanced technologies to clean up the environment.

The other 19 nations committed to the full implementation of the Paris Agreement and its “irreversibility”. They emphasised the importance of providing financial resources to developing countries as part of the deal.

The wrangling reflects the broader divide on show in previous summits, where Europe and others are seeking to preserve a global system of economic rules that Trump frequently attacks as outdated and unfair.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday that international leaders should go “much further” on climate change after tough negotiations to agree language on the issue at the G-20 summit.

“We avoided going backwards… but we must go much further,” Macron said after the statement signing.

The whole process is overshadowed by the US-China trade war and Trump’s threats to take tariff action against Japan, India and Europe.

The US generally wants shorter, whittled down statements that don’t go into heavy detail or cover issues seen as less core such as climate, one official said. It’s gotten so bad that countries at one point argued over how to clean up plastic rubbish from the world’s oceans, another negotiator said earlier.