WASHINGTON (CN) — President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that the United States is withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, despite pleas from scores of world leaders and the CEOs of dozens of U.S. corporations. However, he said he planned to negotiate a deal that's "fairer" to the United States and that he's open to opting back into a revised agreement at a later date.
But that latter notion got immediate push-back from France, Germany, and Italy who said in a joint statement that the Paris climate accord can't be renegotiated.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she regrets the president's decision to pull out of the climate agreement, while Social Democratic members of her cabinet said in a separate statement that "the United States is harming itself, us Europeans and all other people in the world."
Trump made the announcement before invited guests, many of them opponents of the accord, in the Rose Garden Thursday afternoon.
He called the climate accord "draconian" and "unfair to the United States at the highest level." He also claimed that if allowed to go forward, the Paris Climate Accord would cost the nation nearly 3 million jobs.
"This agreement is less about the climate and more about the rest of the world gaining a financial advantage over the United States," Trump said.
"The agreement is a massive redistribution of United States wealth to other countries," he continued, claiming the accord muzzles U.S. energy development, particularly in regard to coal, while allowing other nations -- particularly, India and China -- to continue to development their coal resources.
“The Paris Climate Accord is just the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that damages the US … leaving American workers who I love, and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages and shuttered factories," Trump claimed.
The president based many of his claims on the work of National Economic Research Associates, an economic consulting firm whose clients the major corporations, large law firms, and entities in the coal and fossil fuel industries among others.
Citing NERA, Trump said that compliance with the terms of the Paris accord "and the energy restrictions it has placed on the U.S." would result in the loss of 2.7 million jobs by 2025.
That number includes 40,000 fewer manufacturing jobs, he said, adding, "This is not what we need."
"According to same study," the president continued, "by 2040, compliance with commitments put into place by the previous administration would cut production for the following sectors: paper, down 12 percent; cement, down 23 percent; iron and steel, down 38 percent; coal -- and I happen to love the coal miners -- 86 percent; natural gas, down 31 percent.
"The cost of the economy at this time would be close to $3 trillion in lost GDP and 6.5 million industrial jobs, while households would have $7,000 less income and in many cases, much worse than that,” Trump claimed.
White House talking points obtained by The Associated Press before the announcement say that the Paris accord "is a BAD deal for Americans" and that the president's action would keep "his campaign promise to put American workers first."
"The Accord," the document goes on to say, "was negotiated poorly by the Obama Administration and signed out of desperation."
"The U.S. is already leading the world in energy production and doesn't need a bad deal that will harm American workers," it reads.