Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue offered his thoughts on President Donald Trump withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate accord. Perdue, nominated by Trump in January and confirmed by the Senate in April, says Trump ?has rightly determined that the Paris accord was not in the best interests of the United States.?
Perdue says the agreement would cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars and millions of jobs. Business Insider reports that the U.S. is the world’s second-largest carbon emitter, after China.
The publication also says that most greenhouse gases come from burning fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas, but they also come from using fertilizers, raising livestock and maintaining landfills. Perdue said the Paris accord would have a ?negligible impact on world temperatures.?
He says Earth?s climate has been changing since the planet was formed, and that the U.S. Department of Agriculture remains ?firmly committed to digging ever deeper into research to develop better methods of agricultural production in that changing climate.?
