Macron: The US will come back to the Paris climate pact

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday predicted that the United States will come back to the Paris climate change agreement.

Speaking to a joint session of Congress, Macron said climate change is a long-term problem that won’t go away, and that gives him confidence the United States will either stay in the agreement or come back if it does leave.

“I’m sure, one day, the United States will come back and join the Paris agreement. And I’m sure we can work together to fulfill with you the ambitions of the global compact on the environment,” Macron told the House and Senate, eliciting some cheers from within the House chamber.

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President Trump announced in June 2017 that he would pull the United States out of the pact that was reached in 2015 in France’s capital with the help of the Obama administration. The exit from the nonbinding accord cannot take effect until 2020 at the earliest, and a future president could quickly rejoin.

Macron spoke extensively about climate change and the environment in his speech. But he did not seek to consternate Trump or the United States and instead chose to highlight the urgency of the issue.

Most of his statements brought cheers from at least some lawmakers, though Republicans did not applaud every line.

“I believe in building a better future for our children, which requires offering them a planet that is still habitable in 25 years,” he said.

With unchecked greenhouse gas emissions, plunging biodiversity and increasing ocean pollution, “we are killing our planet,” Macron remarked.

“Let us face it: There is no Planet B.”

Macron also sought to appeal to American interests on environmental concerns.

“On this issue, it may happen we have disagreements between the United States and France. It may happen, like in all families. But that’s, for me, a short-term disagreement. In the long run, we will have to face the same realities, and we’re just citizens of the same planet,” he said.

“Let us work together in order to make our planet great again, and create new jobs and new opportunities, ones of guarding our earth,” Macron continued, borrowing from Trump’s presidential campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”