European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen responded indirectly Tuesday to Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, declaring the climate accord a lifeline for the world.
“The Paris Agreement continues to be the best hope for all humanity. So Europe will stay the course, and keep working with all nations that want to protect nature and stop global warming,” the European Union’s top executive said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The remarks came hours after Trump signed an executive order on Monday that commanded the United States’ withdrawal from the 2015 Paris deal and all other deals and agreements signed under the auspices of the United Nations climate convention. The order also put an immediate end to American climate finance support for developing countries.
It’s the second time Trump has pulled the U.S. from the deal, which commits nearly every nation to lower planet-warming emissions. Von der Leyen said devastating recent disasters in the U.S., including hurricanes and fires, were evidence that “all continents will have to speed up the transition toward net zero.”
Unlike when Trump first quit the Paris deal in 2017, few world leaders this time publicly lobbied the U.S. president to remain. Von der Leyen even faces growing calls from within her own center-right party to water down the EU’s climate change legislation.
Despite this, she declared: “Climate change is still on top of the global agenda.”
While von der Leyen did not refer directly to Trump’s decision, EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra did, calling it a “truly unfortunate development that the world’s largest economy, and one of our closest allies in the fight against climate change, is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.”
He added: “Despite this setback, we remain committed to working with the U.S. and our international partners to address the pressing issue of climate change.”
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