Pruitt exit at G7 talks highlights gap between countries

BOLOGNA, Italy - The sudden exit of the head of the US delegation lowered expectations for the ongoing Group of Seven environmental ministerial talks, showing that differences between the United States and the group's other countries will be hard to resolve.

There was no formal word on the unscheduled departure of Scott Pruitt, chief of the US Environmental Protection Agency, a few hours after the two-day G7 talks began on Sunday.

US media said Pruitt was "summoned" by President Donald Trump to Washington to attend Trump's first full cabinet meeting on Monday.

With the participation of junior US officials, discussions continued in the northern Italian city of Bologna on topics including climate change, sustainable development and litter at sea.

"Positions over the Paris accord are far apart ... and will remain like that," Italian Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti said on Sunday on the sidelines of the meeting of ministers from the US, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Britain. Italy holds the G7 presidency for 2017.

The meeting is also being attended by the European Commission, the United Nations and four invited countries: Chile, Ethiopia, the Maldives and Rwanda.

"We definitely made a step forward toward dialogue - aside from climate, there is complete agreement on all the other issues," said Galletti

US media reports cited Pruitt as saying in March he did not believe carbon dioxide was a primary contributor to global warming.

Trump, who has called climate change a hoax costing US jobs, last month announced his decision to quit the Paris Agreement, which was reached in December 2015.

The US move was described as a setback for the global fight against climate change by advocates of the accord, which included more than 190 countries, and drew widespread criticism at home and particularly from Europe.

Some European leaders said the US decision was a disappointment or a mistake.

Germany, France and Italy have issued a joint statement saying the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated, urging increased efforts to fight climate change.

Trump has shown his intention to renegotiate the Paris deal or begin talks on a new accord on "terms that are fair to the United States," which is among the world's top carbon emitters.

Italy's Galletti said the US was looking to take the climate change debate forward on a voluntary basis while Paris was a multilateral accord requiring monitoring, deadlines and transparency.

"That's a substantial difference," he said.

Pruitt said in a statement later on Sunday that the US had always been a world leader on environment issues and "that was demonstrated on a global stage today."

United Nations executive director for the environment Erik Solheim, present at the morning sessions, said G7 countries, excluding the US, were absolutely committed to move ahead with climate action whatever happened in the White House.

"We cannot allow one nation to derail what 190 other nations are happy to do," he said.

Xinhua - Reuters