Paris accord intended to kill US economy, not save environment: Donald Trump

Addressing the online G20 summit on Sunday, the US President said the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change was 'designed to kill the economy of the United States, not save the global environment'.

Trump in 2017, announced his decision to pull the US out of the Paris Accord.

Calling the Paris accords a very unfair deal for the United States, Trump stated that the accords would have led to immense job losses in the US particularly in oil and coal sector.

"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. 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," he said.

Hitting back at his detractors who question his commitment to the environment, he claimed that Washington has made progress on environmental issues under his administration. In particular he mentioned that US has invested more than $38 billion in water infrastructure.

Trump claimed that US under him has reduced its carbon footprint.

"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," Trump added.

Projected US President-elect Joe Biden has announced his intentions to take US back return to the Paris agreement.