The US has begun the process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, notifying the UN of its intention to leave, as other countries expressed regret and disappointment at the move, the BBC reports.
The notification begins a one-year process of exiting the global climate change accord, culminating the day after the 2020 US election.
The US government says the deal puts an “unfair economic burden” on Americans.
The agreement brought together 188 nations to combat climate change.
The Paris accord, agreed in 2015, committed the US and 187 other countries to keeping rising global temperatures below 2C above pre-industrial levels and attempting to limit them even more, to a 1.5C rise.
The decision to withdraw – taken by President Donald Trump after he came to office in 2017 – made the US the world’s sole non-signatory and prompted high-level efforts by the European Union to keep the agreement on track.
