In a CBS interview, Emmanuel Macron said he believed Donald Trump would bring the US back to the Paris agreement.
Macron condemned the US’s decision to sign up to the agreement, only then to withdraw. The French President continued to say Trump’s negotiations for the agreement would not be met.
“The US did sign the Paris Agreement. It’s extremely aggressive to decide on its own just to leave, and no way to push the others to renegotiate because one decided to leave the floor. I’m sorry to say that. It doesn’t fly,” he told CBS on the eve of a summit on climate.
Trump announced earlier this year that the US would be withdrawing from the Paris agreement. This decision cannot be enacted until November 2020, the day after the next US Presidential election.
The One Planet conference was organised to bring together governments, businesses and other actors in a drive to achieving the climate agreement goals.
Pledges made by different companies included Axa (EPA: CS), the world’s third-largest insurance company. Axa said it would divest €2.4 billion in coal assets and €700 million in tar sands assets.
Despite efforts from businesses and governments, campaigners remain worried that the measures announced at the conference were not sufficient enough to contribute to the climate goals.
“[The conference] should resolutely move cold hard cash away from dirty, polluting energy, and instead invest in clean energy, if we are to avoid the earth’s temperature rising by 3 degrees Celsius [which scientists say is likely on current trends],” said Rachel Kennerley, of Friends of the Earth.
“The [One Planet conference] will fail if it just delivers a rehash of previous commitments, because the scale of the challenge faced clearly cries out for a radical and immediate response.”
Lord Stern, the former chief economist of the World Bank, has said that Europe needs to recognise its role in climate change and start a bigger drive toward completing climate goals.