U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he delivers a speech at the White House in Washington D.C., capital of the United States, on June 1, 2017. (Xinhua/Mike Theiler)
SAN FRANCISCO, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Governor Jerry Brown of California, a state on the U.S. West Coast, vowed Thursday to resist President Donald Trump's withdrawal from Paris agreement on climate change.
"California will resist this misguided and insane course of action," Brown said in a statement released before Trump finished his speech at Rose Garden of White House announcing his decision to withhold U.S. obligations under the international accord.
"Trump is AWOL but California is on the field, ready for battle," according to the written statement.
AWOL stands for Absent Without Official Leave, a term in the U.S. military, meaning away from military duties without permission.
As the sixth-largest economy in the world, California has advanced its nation-leading climate goals while also growing the economy, Brown noted, adding that in the last seven years, California has created 2.3 million new jobs, outpacing most of the United States, cut its unemployment rate in half, eliminated a 27 billion U.S. dollars budget deficit and has seen its credit rating rise to the highest in more than a decade.
"Donald Trump has absolutely chosen the wrong course. He's wrong on the facts. America's economy is boosted by following the Paris Agreement. He's wrong on the science. Totally wrong," said Brown, who has been working to broaden collaboration among subnational leaders, under what is known as the Under2 MOU, a memorandum of understanding signed or endorsed by 170 jurisdictions around the world to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.
Representing 33 countries and six continents, the Under2 Coalition claims to represent more than 1.18 billion people and 27.5 trillion dollars in gross domestic product (GDP), equivalent to 16 percent of the global population and 37 percent of the global economy.
Eighteen U.S. jurisdictions have joined the Under2 Coalition, representing 89 million people and 28 percent of the U.S. population.
Brown is scheduled to start Friday a travel to China to strengthen the Golden state's climate, clean energy and economic ties with the nation.
In an interview with Xinhua before his departure, Brown explained his sense of urgency for action against climate change: "It is urgent. It is urgent because what we do today will create irreversible consequences in the years ahead. Time is running out. This is very serious. If the Himalayas start melting their ice more quickly, more dramatically, this will cause a lot of tension, a lot of suffering."
He pointed to the fact that in California, fires are not just in the summer, but are in "most of the year."
"We are experiencing already the effect of climate change," he said. "In 10, 15 or 20 years, the seas will be rising, the weather will be becoming far less benign, so it is imperative that we act."
The statement also announce that Brown will attend the 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, to represent subnational jurisdictions that remain committed to climate action.
