Leaders: Paris Agreement and Harm

leaders: Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vladimir Putin and Shinzo Abe Photograph Mikhail Klimentyev/AP Their compromise enabled 19 of the 20 leaders to reaffirm their commitment to the Paris agreement, but left enough room for Washington to attempt to justify its increasing isolation from the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a reference to the harm it would inflict on American workers and taxpayers . The frank dialogue Abe craved proved more problematic, however, according to The Guardian. The opening day of the summit was overshadowed by the China-US trade war, the presence of Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, and for British audiences at least, Theresa May's confrontation with Vladimir Putin over the Salisbury novichok poisonings. The G20 nations, Abe said, have a responsibility to squarely face global problems and to come up with solutions through frank dialogue . Their communique, which had looked in doubt 24 hours earlier as the EU and the US sparred over how to describe the climate crisis, went some way towards meeting his demands. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Theresa May did not attempt to mask her discomfort while shaking hands with Vladimir Putin. It was a theme he returned to on Saturday evening, when he claimed that immigration had infringed on other people's rights, and attributed Trump's 2016 election victory to disenchantment with mainstream liberal ideals. Photograph Reuters Putin had already angered Donald Tusk, among others, by declaring in a Financial Times interview published at the start of the summit that liberalism was obsolete. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.