In a statement Monday afternoon, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said President Donald Trump’s administration had sent official notification of its plans to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord to the United Nations.
The United States is the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases and will become the only nation to withdraw from the global effort to combat climate change if followed through. Trump, in his ignorance, has long stated that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese, and that wind turbines cause cancer. Trump maintains that US participation in the deal undercuts the country’s “competitiveness.”