Pruitt’s G-7 Escape And Separate G-6 Statement Heighten U.S. Isolation

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt left the G-7 environmental ministers meeting after the first day. Shortly thereafter, the environmental ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the EU released a communique on environmental issues, including one separate chapter on the climate crisis, furthering the G-6 – Trump rift which began Taormina, Italy at the G-7 summit at the end of May.

This meeting is the first major international forum to take place since Trump announced that the U.S. would be withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement.

In response, Sierra Club Global Climate Policy Director John Coequyt released the following statement:

“Trump sending Scott Pruitt to the environmental ministers meeting for only one day was a pathetic and failed attempt to save face following his historic mistake of withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. Sending a notorious climate denier like Scott Pruitt to discuss anything related to the environment is nothing short of an insult to the other countries of the world who are acting on climate. Trump and Pruitt will find that the world’s memory is not as short as they seem to be hoping. Their efforts to try and derail climate action cannot be washed away nearly as easily as our coastlines can by rising seas.

“Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt may be content to keep their heads in the sand on climate action, but cities and states across the U.S. are joining the rest of the world, not sitting idly by when it comes to the future of our communities, families, and environment. Under Donald Trump, the U.S. is increasingly isolating itself, handing global leadership off to the G-6.”