President Donald Trump speaks during the second and final presidential debate on October 22, 2020, at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, with former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate. (AP Photo / Julio Cortez)
Trump’s comments come days before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper visit New Delhi to discuss building the growing US-India partnership.
- AFP Nashville
- Last update: October 23, 2020 8:50 AM IST
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US President Donald Trump on Thursday described the air in India and China as “dirty” when denouncing the plans of Democratic rival Joe Biden to tackle climate change. In his second and final presidential debate, Trump renewed his criticism that action on climate change was unfair to the United States.
“Look at China, how disgusting it is. Look at Russia, look at India, it’s disgusting. The air is disgusting,” Trump said at the debate in Nashville.
Trump denounced that Biden’s climate plan was an “economic disaster” for oil states like Texas and Oklahoma. Biden said that climate change is “an existential threat to humanity. We have a moral obligation to deal with it.”
“We are going to pass the point of no return within the next eight to 10 years,” he said.
The planet has already warmed about one degree Celsius (34 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels, enough to increase the intensity of deadly heat waves, droughts and tropical storms.
Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, which aims to limit global warming “well below” two degrees Celsius.
Trump’s comments come days before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper visit New Delhi to discuss building the growing US-India partnership.
In the first presidential debate, Trump also spoke critically of India, questioning its coronavirus data amid criticism of Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
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