Trump skips G7 meeting on climate

US President Donald Trump has missed a discussion on climate with other world leaders at the Group of Seven summit in France.

Trump was scheduled to attend Monday’s session on climate, biodiversity and oceans, but his chair was empty during a portion of the meeting reporters were allowed to witness.

French President Emmanuel Macron says that while Trump didn’t attend, his aides were there.

The president started the morning behind schedule. His meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel was delayed about two hours. He then met with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where he was asked about attending the climate session. He said it would be his next stop and that he wants clean air and water.

Trump is a climate change skeptic who once had claimed it’s a hoax that was invented by the Chinese.

From the left, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Burkina Faso’s President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, French President Emmanuel Macron, Egyptian President and Chairman of the African Union Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera and German Chancellor Angela Merkel attend a work session focused on climate in Biarritz, southwestern France, August 26, 2019, on the third day of the annual G7 Summit. The empty seat at third right was the place reserved for US President Donald Trump, who according to Macron had skipped Monday’s working session on the climate. (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)

— AP

Most Popular