Donald Trump attacks Paris deal, cites 'yellow vest' protests in France as proof he was right to leave accord

Washington: US president Donald Trump on Saturday once again attacked the Paris agreement on fighting climate change, citing the ongoing protests in the French capital as proof that he was right to reject the pact. His morning tweet came in the middle of UN climate talks in Poland, where nearly 200 nations have gathered to agree on a universal rulebook to make good on the promises they signed up to in the 2015 Paris climate deal. [caption id=“attachment_5386921” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of US president Donald Trump. AP[/caption] “The Paris Agreement isn’t working out so well for Paris. Protests and riots all over France,” Trump said. “People do not want to pay large sums of money, much to third world countries (that are questionably run), in order to maybe protect the environment.” Saturday’s comment was not the first time Trump had used the Paris “yellow vest” protests — which began on 17 November with road blockades against fuel prices but have since ballooned into a mass movement against French President Emmanuel Macron — to slam the climate deal. On Tuesday, he called the Paris agreement “fatally flawed”. Trump has long said he distrusts the consensus by nearly all the world’s respected climate scientists on the link between human activity and rising temperatures, as well as other damaging climate change phenomena. Since becoming president in January 2017, he has pulled the United States out of the international Paris Agreement on attempting to bring down global temperatures, and torn up a raft of environmental protection laws, saying the US economy needs the boost. Late last month, Trump’s own government issued a dire report warning of massive economic losses if carbon emissions continue to feed climate change unchecked, but the US leader said he didn’t believe the findings.