US position on Paris Agreement remains the same

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Europe

The US government has not changed its position on withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change, the White House said on Saturday.

"There has been no change in the United States' position on the Paris agreement. As the President (Donald Trump) has made abundantly clear, the United States is withdrawing unless we can re-enter on terms that are more favorable to our country," the White House said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Canete said that the United States wouldn't pull out of the Paris Agreement, the Wall Street Journal reported.

File photo was taken on April 29, 2017, shows a child holding a placard during a demonstration against US President Donald Trump's climate policies in Los Angeles, the United States. /Xinhua Photo‍

The EU official said the United States has said it "will not renegotiate the Paris accord," but will instead "review the terms on which they could be engaged under this agreement," the report said.

He made the remarks at a meeting in Montreal, which gathered officials from more than 30 nations that signed onto a 2015 landmark pact to fight climate change.

China’s special representative for climate change affairs, Xie Zhenhua, said that the world must press ahead with the Paris commitments.

“The Paris agreement should not be renegotiated,” he said.

The Paris accord, reached by nearly 200 countries, was meant to limit global warming to 2 degrees or less, mainly through pledges to cut carbon dioxide and other fossil-fuel emissions.

Trump, who once called the pact a "hoax," announced in June that his country will leave the Paris Agreement. His decision fulfilled a campaign promise but was met with widespread criticism both at home and abroad.

Source(s): Reuters ,Xinhua News Agency