PARIS, France (AFP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Donald Trump had made a historic error Thursday by abandoning the Paris climate agreement, and urged frustrated United States climate scientists and entrepreneurs to come and work in France.
And cheekily adapting the nationalist slogan used by Trump on his election campaign trail, Macron urged defenders of the climate to “make our planet great again.”
In a TV address broadcast both in French and English, Macron said he respected Trump’s decision, “but I do think it is an actual mistake both for the US and for our planet.”
“Climate change is one of the major issues of our time. It is already changing our daily lives but it is global,” Macron said.
“Everyone is impacted and if we do nothing our children will know a world of migrations, of wars of shortage, a dangerous world, it is not the future we want for ourselves, it is not the future we want for our children, it is not the future we want for our world.”
Referring to Trump’s idea of redrawing the 2015 accord, he said, in the French version, “we will not in any way renegotiate an agreement that is less ambitious” than the present one.
“I reaffirm clearly that the Paris Agreement remains irreversible and will be implemented not just by France but by all the other nations,” Macron vowed.
He added: “To all scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision of the president the (US), I want to say that they will find in France a second homeland.”
“I call on them, come and work here with us, to work together on concrete solutions for our climate, our environment.”
Macron said that he would move swiftly to define “a common strategy and to launch new initiatives” with France’s partners.
“We will succeed because we are fully committed, because wherever we live, whoever we are, we all share the same responsibility: make our planet great again,” said Macron, tweaking the “Make America great again” slogan promoted by Trump.
© Agence France-Presse