ISTANBUL, July 10 (Sputnik) — On Saturday, the G20 leaders said in a joint communique that they took note of the United States' decision to exit the Paris deal and announced the US pledge to work with other countries to "help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently and promote deployment of the renewable and other clean energy sources."
"This is a very important issue, the United States is a big country and the regional leader for the Paris agreement. Now they decided to pull out, which is an issue related to another international countries and negative impact worldwide. Renewables, energy transition need the US involvement for the leadership, for technology, for finance. Other countries like EU, Germany, China have committed to continue [participating in the Paris deal] and it's good, but they still need the US cooperation. America is a great country… maybe after some time they will reconsider [withdrawal], so them committing to cleanly use fossil fuels is also progress," Sun said on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul.
On June 1, US President Donald Trump, who repeatedly criticized the Paris Agreement during his election campaign as potentially dangerous for the US economy and employment, announced his country’s withdrawal from the accord.
The Paris climate agreement was adopted within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December 2015 and came into force in November 2016. The accord has been signed by more than 190 countries and ratified by 153. As stipulated in the document, all parties should maintain the increase in average global temperature at below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
