President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the United States will withdraw from a global pact to fight climate change.
Throughout Trump’s presidential campaign, he criticized the Paris Agreement on climate change. He even called climate change a “hoax” he said was aimed at weakening industry in the U.S.
Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” appeared on CNN shortly before Trump’s announcement to talk with Jake Tapper about withdrawing from the accord.
Zakaria began the discussion by saying, should Trump go through with the exit, “This will be the day that the United States resigned as the leader of the free world.”
Zakaria went on to say that the “irresponsibility” of Trump withdrawing from the pact is “breathtaking because the Paris Climate Accords are extraordinarily flexible.”
“They do not dilute American sovereignty,” he said. “They allow every country to make its own plans. That’s why countries that jealously guarded their sovereignty like China, like India, like Russia have all signed on.”
These sentiments have been echoed by Susan Biniaz, the State Department’s long-time former lawyer on climate change issues. Biniaz told HuffPost Thursday that “it’s inexplicable why we would be leaving.”
“We negotiated it largely to U.S. specifications,” she said.
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