French Ecology Minister Calls US Withdrawal From Paris Deal Message of Violence

The decision of US President Donald Trump to withdraw his country from the Paris climate agreement is a message of "unprecedented violence" to people, who have had to leave their homes due to climate change, French Minister of Ecological and Inclusive Transition Nicolas Hulot said Friday.

PARIS (Sputnik) — On Thursday, Trump announced that the United States would leave the Paris agreement, but also expressed readiness to renegotiate the accord in order to make it more beneficial to Washington.

"It is a message of an unprecedented violence to millions of men, women and children who every year have to leave their territory because of the consequences of global warming," Hulot said.

According to Hulot, the US withdrawal from the climate accord is not the decision of the whole country and there are many people in the United States who oppose the move.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe also condemned Trump's move.

"The decision of Donald Trump is alarming for the planet," Philippe said, as quoted by the RTL broadcaster.

The Paris deal was adopted in December 2015 and aims to limit global average temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The agreement came into force on November 4, 2016. The participation of the United States, as well as of China, is important for the deal, as the two states are the largest global producers of carbon emissions.