29 May, 2017
Mattis said that as defense secretary, such negotiations were "not inside my portfolio", but added: "Obviously we deal with the aspects of a warming climate in the Department of Defense, and to us, that's just another one of the many factors we deal with which we call the physical environment".
US President Donald Trump has reportedly told 'confidants, ' including the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, that he plans to leave a landmark global agreement on climate change.
Leaders warned the US president that he risks a stampede, as others in the 195-nation agreement use American withdrawal from the treaty to reduce their own commitments. Members of his administration, meanwhile, are deadlocked on the issue.
It was unclear whether those meetings would still take place.
"He came here to learn and get smarter".The rift is one of several emerging disagreements between Trump and other world leaders.Cohn said Trump was struck during his discussions Friday by "how important it is for the United States to show leadership".
Under Trump, who once called climate change a "hoax" perpetrated by China and wants to boost the United States coal industry, Washington has resisted intense pressure from its partners to commit to respecting the global 2015 accord on curbing carbon emissions. "His views are evolving which exactly as they should be", Trump's economic adviser Gary Cohn said on Friday.
U.S. President Donald Trump, right, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, speak with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi as they attend a round table meeting of G7 leaders and Outreach partners at the Hotel San Domenico during a G7 summit in Taormina, Italy, Saturday, May 27, 2017.
The biggest idea of Trump's trip was to reorient US foreign policy in the Middle East against Iran.
"The whole discussion about climate has been hard, or rather very unsatisfactory", Merkel said after the summit.
There was relief that Trump agreed to language on trade in the final G7 communique that commits to a rules-based worldwide trade system.
"The Paris accord, created in 2015 after lengthy negotiations, calls on 196 nations to ratchet back greenhouse gas emissions".
The US president tweeted he would make his "final decision" on the Paris accord after his return to Washington.
After starting his first presidential trip overseas wreathed in smiles, Trump is ending it with rebukes, upbraiding America's European partners over military spending, trade and global warming.
"On the campaign trail, Trump said he would "cancel" the Paris deal".
The G7 leaders have agreed to keep fighting protectionism, a win for the six countries that had been pushing Trump to come around to their view of free trade.
The Group of 7, or G7, is comprised of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the UK; the European Union also participates.
The rules of the NAFTA countdown mean Trudeau and Trump can not talk about specific issues that would be subject to negotiations, even though they did talk about Canada-U.S. trade, including softwood lumber.
The G7 is an informal gathering that meets every year under a rotating chairmanship.
His treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, has said the United States reserves the right to be protectionist if trade arrangements are unfair to USA companies and workers.
It is a measure of the gulf that the Italians say they expect the final statement to come in at just six pages when it is released on Saturday afternoon - down from 32 pages past year.