The G20 summit is looking a lot more like the G19, according to world leaders who formed a unified front against US president Donald Trump on climate change. For the first time in years of dominance at the meeting, the US appeared isolated.
German chancellor Angela Merkel’s remarks which closed the G20 summit in Hamburg included a direct jab at Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement. The other 19 members reaffirmed their stance at the summit that the agreement was irreversible, according to CNN.
“Unfortunately—and I deplore this—the United States of America left the climate agreement, or rather announced their intention of doing this,” Merkel said. The final joint G20 communiqué released at the end of the meeting reiterated her point—while it noted the US’s stance, it made clear that the other countries were not in agreement.
“The leaders of the other G20 members state that the Paris Agreement is irreversible,” the statement read.
“I think it’s very clear that we could not reach consensus, but the differences were not papered over, they were clearly stated,” Merkel told reporters.
Video from earlier in the two-day meeting captured Merkel delivering a clear eye roll while listening to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
French president Emmanuel Macron said that member states found some common ground on the topic of terrorism, but that on other important topics, little could be reached. “Our world has never been so divided,” he said, according to the Washington Post, mentioning rising concerns about “authoritarian regimes.”
“Centripetal forces have never been so powerful. Our common goods have never been so threatened,” he said.