Trump blames China, Russia and India for rise in global air pollution

Team Udayavani, Oct 16, 2020, 10:46 AM IST

Washington: US President Donald Trump has blamed countries like China, Russia and India for adding to the global air pollution and asserted that his country has the best environmental numbers.

Speaking to his cheering supporters at an elections rally in the key battleground State of North Carolina on Thursday, Trump said the US under his administration has achieved energy independence while protecting its pristine environment.

“We have the best environmental numbers, ozone numbers, and so many other numbers. In the meantime, China, Russia, India all these countries they’re spewing stuff into the air,” he alleged during the rally.

Trump in June, 2017 announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris deal, saying the accord would have cost America trillions of dollars, killed jobs, and hindered the oil, gas, coal and manufacturing industries.

He has continuously argued that countries like China and India are benefiting the most from the Paris agreement and the agreement itself was unfair to the US, as it badly hit its businesses and jobs.

During Thursday’s rally too, Trump said to the cheering crowd that it was a few nations that were contributing to global pollution.

“I keep telling my people you know, I love clean air but Russia and China, you look at a map you have all these spots and India and many others are spewing it in. What do you suggest?” he asked his thousands of supporters who had gathered at a city airport here to listen to his election speech.

Trump also mocked at those who call for replacing plastic with paper.

“Well, we don’t think you should sell straws anymore. Oh great ok. You ever hear that, the straw, right? I say ok the straw is good, what about the plastic plate? What about the carton? What about the glass that’s out of plastic? Well, we’ll get to that later. These people are crazy,” he said.