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French President Emmanuel Macron says his glamorous Paris charm offensive on Donald Trump was carefully calculated and might have changed the US President's mind about climate change.
Mr Macron defended his decision to reach out to Mr Trump, whose "America first" policies have elicited worry and disdain in Europe.
"Our countries are friends, so we should be too," Mr Macron said in an interview Sunday in the Journal du dimanche newspaper.
After a tense, white-knuckle handshake at their first meeting in May, Mr Macron said they gained a "better, intimate knowledge of each other" during Mr Trump's visit last week.
On their main point of contention — Mr Trump's withdrawal from the landmark Paris climate agreement — Mr Macron was quoted as saying: "Donald Trump listened to me. He understood the reason for my position, notably the link between climate change and terrorism."
Increasing droughts and other extreme weather blamed on man-made climate change are worsening migration crises and conflicts in some regions as populations fight over dwindling resources.
"He said he would try to find a solution in the coming months. We spoke in detail about what could allow him to return to the Paris deal," Mr Macron said.
Trump previously claimed agreement disadvantaged US
The 2015 Paris agreement is an international accord entered into by more than 100 developing countries pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which came into force in November 2016.
The agreement caps and reduces the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), described as the world's fastest-growing climate pollutant, in a gradual process beginning by 2019, with action by developed countries including the United States, the world's second-worst polluter.
In June Mr Trump announced the US would withdraw from the agreement, saying the deal was "less about the climate and more about other countries gaining an advantage over the United States".
He said the agreement as it stands would make it "very hard" for the US "to compete with the rest of the world", and said leaving it would save 2.7 million US jobs, primarily in manufacturing.
Mr Macron has been a staunch defender of the agreement, going so far as to turn Mr Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan on its head shortly after the US President pulled out.
In a rare English-language statement, Mr Macron said it was time to "make the planet great again".
While in Paris, Mr Trump remained non-committal about the US eventually re-joining the climate agreement, telling Mr Macron, "if it happens that will be wonderful, and if it doesn't that will be OK too."
On Sunday, the French leader also acknowledged Mr Trump's visit — including a formal welcome at Napoleon's tomb, dinner in the Eiffel Tower and a place of honour at the annual Bastille Day military parade — was choreographed to give Americans a "stronger image of France" after deadly Islamic extremist attacks damaged the country's vital tourism sector.
It was also aimed at Mr Trump himself, who has said Paris has been ruined by the threat of terrorism, which he ties to immigrants.
"I think Donald Trump left having a better image of France than upon his arrival," Mr Macron was quoted as saying.
AP
Topics: environment, environmental-policy, environmental-impact, environmental-management, climate-change, donald-trump, world-politics, france, united-states
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