BEIJING (AP) – California Gov. Jerry Brown predicted Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord will prove only a temporary setback to reducing greenhouse gas emissions because “disaster still looms” unless the world moves urgently on the issue.
Brown told The Associated Press during his visit to a clean energy conference in Beijing that China, European countries and U.S. state governors will for now fill the gap left by the federal government’s move to abdicate leadership on the issue.
“Nobody can stay on the sidelines. We can’t afford any dropouts in the tremendous human challenge to make the transition to a sustainable future,” Brown said. “Disaster still looms and we’ve got to make the turn.”
Trump’s decision to leave the Paris accord has drawn heavy criticism within the U.S. and internationally, including in China. The president argued that the Paris agreement favors emerging economies such as China’s and India’s at the expense of U.S. workers.
Without mentioning Trump by name, Brown told attendees at a forum on electric vehicles that “there are still people in powerful places who are resisting reality, who are resisting the obvious science that we know governs our lives.”