Trump Caving Under International Pressure

US President Donald Trump’s apparent change of heart regarding the Paris climate accord is the result of growing pressure inside and outside the United States, the head of the National Climate Change Office at Iran’s Department of Environment said.

“Trump has been under severe pressure as a result of abandoning the deal, to the point that in every meeting he’s had since the announcement, he had to talk about it with world leaders,” Mohsen Nasseri also told ISNA.

“He’s facing pressure even in the US and is caving in to people’s demands and might rethink his stance on the issue.”

International media quoted French President Emmanuel Macron as saying that Trump had told him he would “try to find a solution in the coming months” that would make him “come back to the Paris accord”.

Trump had pulled the US out of the landmark agreement last month, calling the agreement a “draconian” deal.

Withdrawing his country from the Paris accord drew widespread condemnation from people all over the world, even from American states, including California, who pledged to stick to the agreement. Trump, who touts himself as a dealmaker, will most likely try to renegotiate the deal with the world.

“Given what we have seen from him, he’ll most likely make demands that show he hasn’t completely stepped back from his initial stance,” Nasseri said.

The Paris Accord was signed in December 2015 in the French capital by almost 200 countries and obligates signatories to work together to limit the planet’s warming to under 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Iran has said that the agreement will survive without the US.

“This is a multilateral agreement that was hammered out with much difficulty … It’s a golden agreement that unites people,” DOE chief, Massoumeh Ebtekar, said last month.

“The US’ unilateral decision to pull out of the accord will have no effect on the agreement.”

For Iran, tackling climate change is crucial because of its impacts on water resources and forests, both of which have suffered greatly as a result of increasing global temperatures.

According to Iran’s Meteorological Organization, the country’s greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 3% in the past decade and the average temperature has risen by 1.8 degrees Celsius since 1750, considerably higher than the global average of 1.1°C.