The United States is meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Accords despite withdrawing from the agreement, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told NBC.
Speaking on “Meet The Press,” host Chuck Todd asked Bloomberg what the impact would be if the U.S. decided to rejoin the agreement, after President Donald Trump announced last year that he was pulling out of the deal.
"Not a lot because we are halfway there towards meeting our goals already… and there's seven years left to go," answered Bloomberg, who is a possible 2020 presidential candidate. “The economics of coal means no one will stop the reduction in the amount of coal. We've done a bunch of things that we promised to do under that agreement that Trump said we're not going to do," and, in any case, the U.S. cannot pull out of the accord completely until 2020.
Bloomberg explained that Trump indeed walked away from some of the responsibilities the U.S. had for paying for programs to combat climate change, but that the private sector, including the former mayor’s own foundation, stepped in to take care of it.
When Todd asked if that is the answer, to give up on government support for such causes, Bloomberg said, "It would be a lot more helpful if we had a climate champion rather than a climate denier in the White House."
Trump's announcement last year that he was withdrawing from the accord was heavily criticized, especially by Democrats, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
As part of the agreement, the United States had pledged to cut its carbon emissions by 26-28 percent and provide $3 billion in aid to developing countries by 2020.
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