Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Tesla protest Trump's Paris climate accord decision

US President Donald Trump has drawn criticism from a slew of tech giants, including Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google, over his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook wrote on Twitter that he believed Trump’s would be harmful to the environment. 

Decision to withdraw from the #ParisAgreeement was wrong for our planet. Apple is committed to fight climate change and we will never waver.

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) 2 June 2017

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai tweeted:

Disappointed with today’s decision. Google will keep working hard for a cleaner, more prosperous future for all.

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) 1 June 2017

Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, IBM and Tesla also slam Paris decision…

The heads of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), Facebook Inc. (NASAQ:FB), Microsoft Corporation and International Business Machine Corp. (NYSE:IBM) also slammed the decision to remove the US from the global climate agreement.

Twitter chief executive, Jack Dorsey, said on his social media platform: “This is an incredibly short sighted move backwards by the federal government. We’re all on this planet together and we need to work together.”

This is an incredibly shortsighted move backwards by the federal government. We’re all on this planet together and we need to work together. https://t.co/tLEdtG0n1o

— jack (@jack) 1 June 2017

Facebook boss Mark Zuckererg said the move “puts our children’s future at risk”, adding that the social media giant was committed to ensuring that every new data centre is powered by 100% renewable energy.

“Stopping climate change is something we can only do as a global community, and we have to act together before it’s too late,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.

IBM said in a statement that the tech company continued to support America’s involvement in the Paris accord. However, it said chief executive, Ginni Rometty, will remain on Trump’s business advisory council.

“IBM believes that it is easier to lead outcomes by being at the table, as a participant in the agreement, rather than from outside it,” the statement said.

Tesla’s chief executive Elon Musk, on the other hand, is not having it and has stepped down from the advisory council over the decision.

Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 1 June 2017

Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a statement the company was “disappointed” with today’s decision and continues to be a “steadfast supporter of the Paris agreement”. Smith had lobbied the White House for months to keep the US part of the Paris accord.

He said he had sent letters and held meetings on the issue with senior officials  in the state department and the White House. “And in the past month, we’ve joined with other American business leaders to take out full-page ads in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and New York Post, urging the administration to keep the United States in the Paris agreement,” Smith said in a statement.”

Trump receives support from some in US energy industry…

Those in support of Trump’s decision include some parts of the US energy industry. Trump had promised to pull out of the Paris agreement during his election campaign. 

Peabody Energy, the largest listed US coal producer, said it believed that abiding by the accord, without significant changes, would have “substantially impacted the US economy, increased electricity costs and required the power sector to rely on less diverse and more intermittent energy”.

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 2 June 2017

Oil supermajors ExxonMobil and Chevron, however, repeated their support for the agreement. 

The Paris accord, adopted in 2015, is a commitment between its 195 members to deal with greenhouse gas emissions. Under the agreement each country determines its own contribution it should make in order to mitigate global warming and there is no rule in place to force a country to set a specific target. 

Story by ProactiveInvestors