Trump was scheduled to attend the session on climate, biodiversity, and oceans Monday but missed the talks on how to deal with the Amazon rainforest fires as well as new ways to cut carbon emissions, according to CTV News Canada
The U.S. president is a climate change skeptic who has described it as a hoax that was invented by the Chinese. He has further announced he was withdrawing the United States from the 2015 Paris climate accord, a move that is severely damaging world efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
JUST IN: President Trump absent from #G7 session on climate pic.twitter.com/2FMu0Cp8gW
— The Hill (@thehill) August 26, 2019
Trump began his morning behind schedule, meeting with individual leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who managed to make it to the climate meeting. When asked by reporters whether he was attending the climate session, he replied: “We’re having it in a little while.” He did not appear to hear when a reporter told him it had just taken place.
French president, Emmanuel Macron confirmed Trump had not personally attended the climate meeting but said Trump’s aides had attended. Macron said it wasn’t his goal to try to persuade Trump to rejoin the climate accord. “You can’t rewrite the past,” Macron told reporters.
Macron told reporters he and Trump held long and in-depth talks on the Amazon fires and that the US president “shares our objectives” and was “fully engaged” in the joint G7 effort to help Brazil put out the fires and reforest, reports The Guardian.
In Biarritz, @antonioguterres meets with President @EmmanuelMacron of France at @G7 pic.twitter.com/QkrrwJZ0WZ
— UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) August 25, 2019
G-7 countries pledged $20 million on Monday to help fight fires in the Amazon rainforest. Although it is not a huge sum, G-7 summit host France hopes it will bring more attention to the fires. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also attended the Monday climate meeting.
Guterres expressed hope that Americans themselves would help fight climate change even if their president doesn’t, reports PBS News Hour.
“I am very optimistic about American society and its capacity to deliver in relation to climate action,” he told reporters afterward. “What matters here is to have a strong engagement of the American society and of the American business community and the American local authorities.”
