White House postpones meeting to decide on participation in Paris climate pact

WASHINGTON — A meeting of Trump administration advisers that had been scheduled for Tuesday to decide whether to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement has been postponed due to scheduling conflicts, a White House official said.

Key advisers to President Donald Trump and cabinet officials were due to convene at the White House to resolve an internal debate over whether Trump should keep his campaign promise to pull the United States out of the Paris agreement, according to senior administration officials and several people briefed on the meeting.

The White House official did not say when the meeting would be rescheduled.

The meeting was meant to lay the groundwork for a formal proposal to Trump, who has promised to announce a decision before a Group of Seven summit at the end of May.

[U.S. vows commitment to Arctic climate change research]

Ahead of Tuesday’s originally planned meeting, business groups and some lawmakers called on the White House to remain in the Paris agreement, while some conservative policy groups urged the advisers to recommend a withdrawal.

Meanwhile, representatives of nearly 200 countries that are party to the Paris agreement are meeting in Bonn this week to discuss technical aspects of implementing the accord.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will host the biennial Arctic Council meeting in Fairbanks, Alaska, later this week.

Reporting By Valerie Volcovici and Steve Holland.