Trump's Difficult Choice on Paris Climate Accord: QuickTake Q&A

President Donald Trump hasn’t, as of yet, pulled the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, the 2015 accord among almost 200 countries to slash fossil-fuel emissions to ease the impact of global warming. But the U.S. broke from its G-7 partners and declined to reaffirm its commitment to the accord, and Trump has taken steps that may make it virtually impossible for the U.S. to carry out its part of the deal. That includes rolling back the 2015 Clean Power Plan, the key driver of what his predecessor, Barack Obama, hoped would be a revolutionary shift in electrical power generation, away from coal and toward wind, solar and natural gas. All things considered, withdrawing from the Paris accord might be a mere formality.

We might know this week. By most accounts, it’s among the toughest decisions the young Trump administration is facing, with senior adviser Stephen Bannon arguing for leaving the deal and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, among those pushing to remain. At his confirmation hearing in the Senate, Tillerson, the former chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corp., said, “It’s important that the U.S. maintains its seat at the table about how to address the threat of climate change, which does require a global response.” Withdrawing from the Paris accord is lately seen as gaining favor among top White House advisers.