White House: No change in US position on Paris accord

ABCNews.com(WASHINGTON) — The White House has restated plans to leave the Paris climate accord in light of new remarks from a European Union official on Saturday.

Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete, the EU’s top climate official, told reporters on the sidelines of a Montreal meeting on the climate accord that the U.S. would not re-negotiate the Paris Agreement, but would review “the terms on which they could be engaged.”

The White House said Saturday the U.S. position on the climate accord had not changed.

“There has been no change in the United States’ position on the Paris agreement,” White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in a statement. “As the President has made abundantly clear, the United States is withdrawing unless we can re-enter on terms that are more favorable to our country.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders took to Twitter with a similar statement.

Our position on the Paris agreement has not changed. @POTUS has been clear, US withdrawing unless we get pro-America terms.

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) September 16, 2017

When President Donald Trump announced in June that the U.S. would withdraw from the climate deal, he said that officials would “begin negotiations to re-enter either the Paris accord or really an entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States.”

“So we are getting out, but we are starting to negotiate and we’ll see if we can make a deal that’s fair,” he said from the Rose Garden at the time.

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