Story at a glance
- Biden said the move to exit the climate agreement by former President Trump set the country back in its climate goals.
- “It sort of put us behind the eight ball a bit,” he said.
- The apology followed Biden’s prepared remarks to world leaders at COP26 in which he called for collective action to take on the “existential threat” of climate change.
President Biden on Monday apologized to world leaders gathered as part of the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow for the Trump administration’s previous withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.
During a meeting hosted by U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on climate “ambition and solidarity,” Biden said the move to exit the climate agreement by former President Trump set the country back in its climate goals.
“I guess I shouldn’t apologize, but I do apologize for the fact that the United States under the last administration pulled out of the Paris accord,” Biden said.
“It sort of put us behind the eight ball a bit,” he added.
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Biden took action to have the U.S. rejoin the Paris climate accord shortly after he was sworn into office in January. The move reversed Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement, which resulted in the U.S. being the only country in the world that wasn’t part of the pact for several months. Trump had argued that the pact “disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries.”
The international agreement aims to reduce global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels.
The apology followed Biden’s prepared remarks to world leaders at COP26 in which he called for collective action to take on the “existential threat” of climate change.
“And every day we delay, the cost of inaction increases. So let this be the moment that we answer history’s call here in Glasgow. Let this be the start of a decade of transformative action that preserves our planet and raises the quality of life for people everywhere,” Biden said in his speech.
The global summit is aimed at putting the world on a path to aggressively cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow the Earth’s warming.
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