G-20 negotiators are struggling to handle Trump's climate stance


World leaders gathered at the G-20 summit in Hamburg are due to issue a joint statement Saturday, but negotiators are stalled over the question of how to address the Trump administration's isolated take on climate change. "The outcome is good. We have a communiqué," said a European Union official. "There is just one outstanding issue on climate."
The assembled nations were able to agree on language about trade despite President Trump's vocal skepticism of many existing trade agreements, but environmental issues have been more difficult given his decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord.
Comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday suggested the final statement may have to acknowledge opposing perspectives. "Compromise can only be found if we accommodate each other's views," she said, but "we can also say, 'We differ.'"
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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