United States President Donald Trump on Sunday said that the Paris Accord was made to "kill the economy" of the US.
Speaking at the G-20 Summit held via video conference, Trump said that his decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement was "to protect American workers".
"To protect American workers, I withdrew the United States from the unfair and one-sided Paris Climate Accord, a very unfair act for the United States. The Paris Accord was not designed to save the environment. It was designed to kill the American economy," he said.
He further said, "I refuse to surrender millions of American jobs and sent trillions of American dollars to the world's worst polluters and environmental offenders - and that's what would have happened."
"Since withdrawing from the Paris Accord, the United States has reduced carbon emissions more than any nation anywhere in the world. Our air is 7 percent cleaner than when I took office," he added.
The US had announced its decision to cease its participation in the Paris agreement in June 2017.
The Summit saw the participation of heads of state or government of 19 member countries, the European Union, other invited countries and international orgsations like the UN, IMF, FATF, OECD.
( With inputs from ANI )
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