Elon Musk Exits Trump Advisory Councils Amid Climate Accord Withdrawal

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced he will leave White House advisory councils now that President Donald Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.

“Climate change is real,” Musk said in a Twitter post earlier today. “Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.”

In December 2015, 195 countries agreed on a broad range of goals to combat climate change. The accord called for limiting global average temperature increases to no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and it also asked for governments to come together every five years to set new climate targets. Notably, developed countries are asked to contribute $100 billion a year to support green energy initiatives for developing nations.

Yesterday, Musk said he worked hard to convince Trump to stick with the accord. By building Tesla and SolarCity, Musk has made green energy a major part of his career, and has even came up with a way to transition the world from fossil fuels to sustainable energy.

But Trump’s decision doesn’t come as a surprise, since he had promised during his campaign to withdraw from the Paris agreement. The president said the U.S. will go through negotiations to get Americans a better deal and possibly re-enter the Paris accord, but there are no guarantees.

“The agreement is a massive redistribution of United States’ wealth to other countries,” Trump said. “It’s to give their country an economic edge over the United States. That’s not going to happen as long as I’m president, I’m sorry.” He also said, “Our withdrawal from the agreement represents a reassertion of American workers’ sovereignty.”

Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama, whose administration was involved in the creation of the Paris accord, said, “The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created. I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack. But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way.”

The U.S. joins two other countries in rejecting the climate accord: Syria and Nicaragua.

Source: Reuters, NPR

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