US withdrawing from Paris deal unless it gets favourable term: Trump adviser

Gary Cohn, the Director of National Economic Council, said this after a breakfast meeting with energy ministers from about a dozen countries on the sidelines of the annual General Assembly session of the United Nations.

"We are withdrawing from the Paris Agreement unless we can reengage on terms more favourable to the United States.

This position was made very clear during the breakfast," the White House said in a statement after the meeting.

"Today’s Energy Minister Breakfast was a useful conversation with many of our international allies and partners. We discussed the president's energy agenda, and the role that US energy resources and technologies can play in promoting energy security, driving economic growth, and reducing emissions at home and globally," a senior White House official said.

The conversation also focused on ways that the countries can work together to provide affordable, reliable energy to help reduce global poverty, the official said.

"Participants discussed the important role that technology and innovation will continue to play as our countries strive to achieve these important goals," he said.

"As a global leader in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies, including highly efficient fossil fuels, the United States looks forward to continuing this conversation as we work together to promote a balanced approach to reducing emissions that does not sacrifice energy security or economic growth,” said the White House official.

President Trump in June announced his decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change and renegotiate the deal that was agreed upon by over 190 countries during the previous Obama administration.

Arguing that countries like China and India are benefiting the most from the Paris Agreement, Trump had said that the agreement on climate change was unfair to the US, as it badly hit its businesses and jobs.

The Paris agreement's central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise in this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The landmark agreement, which entered into force last November, calls on countries to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future, and to adapt to the increasing impacts of climate change.