World leaders at the G20 summit acknowledged US President Donald Trump's divergent stance on climate change, according to a draft communique seen by AFP Friday.
The draft underlines that the 2015 Paris climate accord is "irreversible" and affirms that other G20 nations are committed to the deal while taking note of Washington's decision to quit the agreement.
Ahead of the summit, a key concern among Western allies was whether they would be able to convince G20 members to stand firm on the Paris agreement on combating global warming.
If the draft is confirmed in the final statement due to be published Saturday afternoon, it would reflect the 19-versus-the-US split over the issue.
British Prime Minister Theresa May meanwhile said world leaders will redouble efforts to persuade Trump to rejoin the Paris deal.
"I believe the collective message that will be given to President Trump around this table will be the importance of America coming back into that agreement, and I hope we will be able to work to ensure that can happen," she told the BBC.
Erdogan threatens not to ratify Paris climate accord
Hamburg (AFP) July 8, 2017 –
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened Saturday that his country would not ratify the Paris climate accord, speaking at the end of the G20 summit in Germany.
"After that step taken by America, the position that we adopt is in the direction of not passing it in parliament," Erdogan said at a press conference in Hamburg.
The summit of the world's biggest industrialised and developing economies agreed that 19 of its members would stick with the 2015 plan to fight global warming and "took note" of US President Donald Trump's pullout from the initiative.
But shortly after the mega-summit ended, Erdogan, who met Trump at the event, told a news conference that Turkey was no longer a certain candidate and suggested other members of the "G19" also had doubts.
He said he had clearly told French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel: "No offence, but we will not pass it in our parliament as long as the promises made to us are not delivered".
He said former French president Francois Hollande had promised him that Turkey would be classed as a developing and not an industrialised economy — meaning Ankara would receive money from a global climate fund rather than have to pay into it.
He also suggested some other, unidentified, countries had a "problem" with the agreement and said "they are not renewing their full support".
US isolated over climate: G20 host Merkel
US President Donald Trump faces isolation at Friday's G20 summit over his climate sceptic stance, Chancellor Angela Merkel said, noting that many countries are determined to honour the landmark Paris accord.
Trump may have vowed to pull the US out of the 2015 climate protection deal, but "many many other countries want to go on implementing" it, Merkel told journalists before a meeting with … read more
