A decision by the president of the United States of America (US), Donald Trump, to withdraw his country from the Paris Accord on climate change weakens US global leadership.
Responses from the leaders of the G7 countries were negative. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was highly critical of Trump’s decision, calling it “extremely regrettable and that is putting it mildly.”
 

July 2016 was the hottest month since records began in 1880. Jos Lelieveld, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute, has warned that large areas of the planet could become so hot that they would be virtually uninhabitable for humans.

This would trigger an exodus of hundreds of millions of refugees. Lelieveld maintains, “The July temperatures must underline the urgency of the crisis.”

In his encyclical, Praise Be: On Care for our common home (Laudato Si’), Pope Francis applauds current efforts to “substitute fossil fuel and develop sources of renewable energy… and to develop adequate storage capacity” (No.26).