Bill Clinton: ‘The water is going to keep rising’ whether US stays in Paris or not

Former President Bill Clinton on Saturday offered advice to U.S. mayors who plan to honor the Paris climate accords in the wake of President Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the agreement.

“You can get out of it or in it, but the water is going to keep rising. Politics has almost no influence on science, in case you hadn’t noticed,” Clinton said during the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami Beach.

Clinton also argued that pursuing clean energy would only improve the economy.

“We have got to do more to accelerate this transition, because it’s good economics,” he said.

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The former president’s comments come after Trump announced early this month his decision to pull the U.S. from the landmark accord that was reached under the Obama administration with nearly 200 nations.

Trump argued that pulling the U.S. out of the 2015 agreement would help U.S. workers.

“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” Trump said when he announced the United States’s future departure from the deal.

However, leaders in cities across the U.S., including Pittsburgh, have vowed to meet the standards set in the Paris climate accords.

“Pittsburgh has 13,000 jobs in clean energy. Pittsburgh, the steel city,” Clinton said.

The conference of mayors has show major support of the Paris agreement.

Proud to lead the #ClimateMayors network w/ co-chairs, representing Boston, Knoxville & Houston. If Washington won’t #ActOnClimate, we will. pic.twitter.com/IsQeEiO0M3

— Mayor Eric Garcetti (@MayorOfLA) June 24, 2017

“There’s near unanimity in this conference that climate change is real and that humans contribute to it. There may be a little bit of a disagreement about how actually to deal with it,” said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D), who is becoming the next president of the conference.