Germany’s environmental minister takes on Trump over cost of pulling out of Paris deal

Germany’s environment minister took aim at President Trump on Friday over his claim that the United States is saving “trillions of dollars” by backing out of the 2015 Paris climate accord.

German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said in a statement seen by The Associated Press on Friday that failure to attack climate change head-on would cost the planet “a lot more” than the money Trump claims he is saving his country.

She added that “if we let entire stretches of this planet become uninhabitable then it will trigger gigantic costs.” 

{mosads}Trump in an interview with Fox News on Thursday said the U.S. “would be paying trillions of dollars, trillions of dollars for nothing” if he had decided to remain in the Paris accord.

“And I wouldn’t do that,” he added.

The goal of the Paris agreement is to limit global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in order to prevent what many scientists say would be catastrophic impacts.

Trump withdrew the U.S. from the pact last year and called the climate change agreement “unfair at the highest level to the United States.”