Reaction to US withdrawal from Paris climate agreement

Responding to the President Trump administration’s submission to the United Nations of the paperwork to formally withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change, Jesse Young, Oxfam America’s Climate Change Policy Lead, said:

“The United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement is an indefensible, pointless and morally bankrupt capitulation that will only serve to weaken the global effort to combat the climate crisis at the very moment we should do everything we can to avert catastrophe.

“Simply put, it is the wrong thing to do, at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons.

“Climate change is a global threat affecting every country and every continent. It is the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people – those who rely on rain to grow crops, live in fragile housing and who lack savings or insurance – who are hit the hardest, despite having contributed the least to the problem.”