US Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy said that if elected he will pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord meant to fight global warming.
“The climate change agenda is a hoax,” Ramaswamy said Tuesday in an interview with AFP on the eve of the third Republican presidential election debate.
“Are global surface temperatures going up? Yes,” he added. “Is that an existential risk for humanity? No.”
Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who is polling fourth among Republican contenders, said the United States has no place in the Paris accord, the landmark deal to limit global warming to well below two degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era.
“I think the climate change agenda is based on flawed premises,” he said. “I believe we should stay the heck out of the Paris climate accords.”
Ramaswamy has caused a sensation in recent months with deliberately provocative statements on climate, such as saying he wants to “unlock American energy, drill, frack, burn coal” and calling environmental activists a “religious cult.”
Ramaswamy told AFP that policies restricting fossil fuel usage “are actually making human beings worse off than climate change itself.”
Former President Donald Trump, the overwhelming favorite in the Republican race, whom Ramaswamy steadfastly defends, pulled the United States out of the Paris agreement in 2017. His Democratic successor Joe Biden rejoined the pact.
– Not ‘the global police’ –
Ramaswamy said he hopes Wednesday’s Republican debate would prove to be more productive than the previous ones, with just five candidates taking part. The first two rounds descended into shouting matches among numerous participants.
Turning to geopolitical battles that rage within the Republican Party, Ramaswamy called for focusing on domestic policies.
“Everybody else thinks it’s our job to be the global police. I don’t,” he said. “I think it’s our job to look after the interests of US citizens here at home.”
As for Israel’s war against Hamas, Ramaswamy said the job of the United States was “diplomatically to let Israel defend itself to the fullest.”
He added: “And that’s what it means to stand with Israel. I think that Israel needs to be free to get its own job done.”
On Tuesday, voters in the state of Ohio were choosing whether to enshrine abortion rights into the state’s constitution, in what could be a bellwether on an issue likely to dominate next year’s US presidential race.
Ramaswamy, who hails from Ohio, also cast his ballot Tuesday. He describes himself as fiercely “pro-life” and voted against the amendment.
“I don’t think that that’s a good move for the country,” he said. “And I don’t think it’s a good move for the state of Ohio.”
– Inès BEL AIBA
