The Trump administration will not pull the U.S. out of the Paris agreement after all, and has offered to re-engage in the global fight against climate change. The news was originally broken by the Wall Street Journal after speaking with the European Union's Climate & Energy Commissioner, Miguel Arias Cañete, who was attending a meeting of 30 ministers here in Montreal. The summit was led by federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, as well Cañete and other European and Chinese officials.
Everett Eissenstat, an economic adviser from the Trump administration laid out the new U.S. plan. It is expected that the new course will now see the U.S. will remain within the pact but likely pursue a less ambitious carbon-cutting agenda compared to the 2015 targets set by the Obama administration. Ministers in Montreal communicated to the press that Gary Cohn, the President's senior adviser on economic adviser, will corroborate this plan this week.
The about-face comes months after U.S. President Donald Trump's decision back in June to withdraw or renegotiate the global climate pact in 2020, or to instead come up with an all-new one. Ministers universally agreed at the meeting today that the agreement is not renegotiable, including officials from the Trump administration.
The Paris agreement was originally signed in late 2015 at a U.N. summit. It aims to keep global temperature increases to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius from preindustrial levels. The only countries on the planet that have not signed the accord are Syria and Nicaragua.