German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that Europe was “more determined than ever” to fight climate change after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris agreement.
Speaking to the German parliament a week before hosting a G20 summit, Merkel called global warming an “existential challenge” for humanity and said the 2015 Paris deal was “not negotiable.”
She vowed to stand her ground with Trump, saying that “the differences are obvious and it would be dishonest to try to cover that up. That I won’t do.”
Speaking before she hosts several European leaders in Berlin on Thursday, she said “the European Union unconditionally stands by its agreement in Paris and will implement it speedily and with determination.”
“More than that: Since the decision of the United States to leave the Paris climate agreement, we are more determined than ever to make it a success,” she added.
She said the world needed to reach the international climate targets “because climate change spells one of the gravest challenges for humanity, an existential challenge for all of us on Earth”