TEL AVIV – President Donald Trump’s decision on Thursday to pull out of the Paris climate accord will not sway the Israeli government in a similar direction, Israel’s Environmental Protection Minister indicated, remarking that the country “is not an American colony.”
“We are not an American colony,” Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) said. “The working assumption that Israel needs to change something in its conduct because the U.S. president has decided to withdraw is wrong.”
“The agreement does not affect the Israeli economy — quite the contrary,” he said. “We placed an emphasis on the decreased use of coal and this is reducing air pollution in the state.”
“Just as Trump said that he was elected to represent Detroit rather than Paris, we were elected to represent Jerusalem and not Detroit,” Elkin observed.
“We can contribute our part and act to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, but without American involvement the world will have significantly fewer tools to deal with the issue,” Elkin said.