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Obama: Trump Administration Showing 'An Absence Of American Leadership' On Paris Accord

Obama: Trump Administration Showing 'An Absence Of American Leadership' On Paris Accord

Former President Barack Obama says President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement on combatting climate change means the U.S. will join “a small handful of nations that reject the future.”

The announcement, which is a setback to international efforts to curb global warming, will put the U.S. on the same page as Syria and Nicaragua ― the only nations not to have participated in the agreement. Others, including China, India, and the European Union, indicated they planned to forge ahead in the effort to fight climate change.

In a statement released Thursday, Obama suggested the task of fighting climate change now falls to states, cities and companies in the U.S. that stand to gain from high-tech, low-carbon investment and innovation.

“The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created,” he said. “I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack. But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.”

Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who signed the Paris Accords, also slammed Trump’s decision as “an ignorant, cynical appeal to an anti-science, special-interest faction far outside the mainstream.”

“The President who promised ‘America First’” has taken a self-destructive step that puts our nation last,” Kerry said.

Read Obama’s full statement below:

A year and a half ago, the world came together in Paris around the first-ever global agreement to set the world on a low-carbon course and protect the world we leave to our children.

It was steady, principled American leadership on the world stage that made that achievement possible. It was bold American ambition that encouraged dozens of other nations to set their sights higher as well. And what made that leadership and ambition possible was America’s private innovation and public investment in growing industries like wind and solar – industries that created some of the fastest new streams of good-paying jobs in recent years, and contributed to the longest streak of job creation in our history.

Simply put, the private sector already chose a low-carbon future. And for the nations that committed themselves to that future, the Paris Agreement opened the floodgates for businesses, scientists, and engineers to unleash high-tech, low-carbon investment and innovation on an unprecedented scale.

The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created. I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack. But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.