Washington: The US is withdrawing from the Paris agreement on climate change, President Donald Trump has announced at a White House Rose Garden speech but added that a re-entry is possible on a deal that's fair to the country.
"So we are getting out, but we will start to negotiate and see if we can make a deal that's fair", Trump said.
Trump described the Paris climate accord as an "agreement that is disadvantageous to the US to the exclusive benefits of other countries".
The withdrawal also includes the cancellation of all US contributions to the Green Climate Fund, which Trump said was "costing the US a vast fortune".
Before the announcement, Trump informed Congress about his decision preparing Republican legislators with arguments and lines to take in the face of an expected blowback.
Trump said it was his solemn duty to protect "America and its citizens" and that the US would "withdraw from the Paris climate accord, but begin negotiations to re-enter the Paris accord or a new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States".
According to the rules of the 2016 Paris deal, stepping out of its provisions will be a lengthy process that could take up to four years.
Trump said he could not "in good conscience support a deal that punishes the US and that poses no punishment for the world's great polluters".
Trump claimed "the nations asking us to stay in the agreement are the same nations that cost America trillions of dollars through unfair trade agreements, and the same that do not contribute to military alliances.
"At what point do they start laughing at us? I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not the citizens of Paris," he said.
The US withdrawal from the accord fulfils one of Trump's major campaign promises, and is in line with the America First policy he laid out before being elected president.
The market reaction reflects concerns, raised by some coal companies in recent months, that a US exit from the Paris Climate Agreement could unleash a global backlash against coal interests outside the US.
Barack Obama criticised Trump on Thursday for pulling out of the Paris climate deal, warning that the move would see the US "reject the future".
"The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created," Obama gave warning in a statement.
Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, on Thursday rejected as "seriously wrong" Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate deal.
In Germany, a statement issued by seven Social Democratic ministers in Chancellor Angela Merkel's left-right coalition government said the US "is harming itself, we Europeans and all the people of the world."
German ministers claim "the land of the free and the home of the brave is contradicting its basic principles"
The statement also states that the door will be kept open for the US to join at a later date as the "global community must stick together now".
Catherine McKenna, Canadian environment minister, said her country is "deeply disappointed by the US decision on the Paris accord".
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo says US decision to pull out of the climate accord "is a mistake with dramatic consequences".
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