The Conversation (0)
Joe Vesey-Byrne
Sep 17, 2017
Picture:
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
In another zig-zag, the Trump Administration appeared to indicate it would be rejoining the Paris Agreement, and was then forced to deny it.
On Saturday a European Union (EU) climate change official told reporters in Montreal that US officials had told him they will 'review the terms on which they could be engaged'
It was reported that the official Miguel Arias Cañete, said that America:
...stated that they will not renegotiate the Paris Accord, but they will try to review the terms on which they could be engaged under this agreement,
He added that a meeting would be held with an American envoy at an upcoming UN General Assembly, in order to clarify the US 'real' position on the Paris deal.
President Donald Trump denounced the Paris climate deal as early as 2015.
In June, President Trump announced he would be withdrawing the US's commitment to the agreement, in the hopes of negotiating a better deal.
In remarks in the Rose Garden of the White House the President said:
We're getting out, and we will start to renegotiate and we'll see if there's a better deal. If we can, great. If we can't, that's fine.
The remarks by Cañete were first reported by Agence France-Presse and The Wall Street Journal.
Yet the suggestion the policy had been changed was rebuked by deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters.
There has been no change in the United States’ position on the Paris agreement.
She continued:
As the President has made abundantly clear, the United States is withdrawing unless we can re-enter on terms that are more favourable to our country.
Walters was backed up by her boss Sarah Sanders who tweeted Saturday:
The confusion follows flurries of briefing and counter-briefing earlier this week regarding the President's stance on immigration.
His flip flops have become so ubiquitous someone has transformed them into actual flip flops you can buy, and walk around in.
More: You can now get flip flops with Trump tweets on them because why not