U.S. allies plan to give Trump an earful on climate change at G-7 summit

TAORMINA, Italy — President Trump has heard the pleas again and again this week: Do not abandon the Paris climate accord.

The president of France tried to persuade him. So did the prime minister of Belgium and the heads of the European Union. Then there was Pope Francis, who gifted Trump a copy of his encyclical on preserving the environment and the "care of our common home."

The lobbying campaign is expected to intensify at the G-7 summit that opened Friday here in Sicily, as the leaders of America's closest allies planned to give Trump an earful about keeping America in the 2015 Paris agreement reached under President Obama. They hope to persuade a man who labeled climate change "a hoax" on the campaign trail that the world's security and economic future depends on addressing global warming.

Trump is waiting to make a final decision about whether to withdraw from the Paris accord until he returns home to Washington this weekend, his advisers have said. Gary Cohn, the National Economic Council director who is accompanying Trump at the G-7 summit, told reporters Friday, "I think he's leaning to understand the European position."

"He knows that in the U.S. there's very strong opinions on both sides, but he also knows that Paris has important meaning to many of the European leaders, and he wants to clearly hear what the European leaders have to say," Cohn said.

Trump and his counterparts at the G-7 - an alliance of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - are planning to discuss a broad range of issues, including terrorism, trade, migration, cybersecurity and energy. They plan to focus their foreign policy discussions on several hot spots: Syria, Libya, North Korea, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Trump has made virtually no public remarks about the G-7 other than a tweet on Friday:

He has yet to hold a news conference during his marathon foreign trip.

Some of Trump's counterparts are prioritizing climate here, well aware that pulling the United States out of the Paris agreement has been the subject of considerable debate within Trump's administration, dividing between the nationalists and globalists who battle to have the president's ear.

It is unclear what Trump might decide, and White House officials have signaled that he might strike a compromise that involves lowering the U.S. emissions targets that some industries see as constraining growth while staying in the accord.

Under the agreement, which was reached by nearly 200 countries, the Obama administration pledged to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, though it is not legally binding.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson talked to reporters earlier this week about "the difficulty of balancing addressing climate change, responses to climate change, and ensuring that you still have a thriving economy and you can still offer people jobs so they can feed their families and have a prosperous economy. And that's a difficult balancing act."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is among those planning to twist Trump's arm in favor of the Paris treaty, Toronto's Globe and Mail reported.

"We believe climate change is one of the greatest threats facing Canadians and the world, and it is a threat which is a global threat and which needs global solutions," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters at the start of the summit.

The G-7 leaders — German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the dean, in length of tenure — convened at an ancient Greek theater overlooking the sparkling waters of the Ionian Sea, as Italian fighter jets soared through the clear sky leaving a trail of red-white-and-green smoke to kick off the summit.

The group, which includes the seven heads of state plus European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, adjourned to the San Domenico Palace, an historic monastery-turned-luxury hotel, to begin their private sessions.

Coming one day after Trump chastised North Atlantic Treaty Organization partners for allegedly not carrying their weight in defense spending, tensions could be high. Trump also criticized Germany in a meeting Thursday with Tusk and Juncker, according to Cohn: "He said they're very bad on trade, but he doesn't have a problem with Germany. He said his dad is from Germany."

Tusk said at a news conference, "There is no doubt that this will be the most challenging G-7 summit in years. It is no secret that the leaders meeting sometimes have different positions on topics such as climate change and trade."

But Trump's aides believe he will enjoy the small-group setting at the G-7. That is in part because Trump already has had one-on-one conversations with each of his G-7 counterparts, the last being newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron. The two met Thursday in Brussels.

"It's time for him to have an intimate discussion and understand their issues, but more importantly for them to understand our issues," Cohn said.

Before the formal sessions began, Trump met Friday morning with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to discuss the growing threat posed by North Korea, which has alarmed neighbors with its recent nuclear tests.

"It's a big problem," Trump said. "It's a world problem and it will be solved at some point. It will be solved, you can bet on that."

Abe warmly praised Trump, saying his visit to the Middle East and address Thursday at NATO headquarters were "successful."

"There is one unfortunate thing I have to confess," Abe said. "This time around we will not be able to play golf together." In February, Trump hosted Abe at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., where they hit the links, as well as at the White House.

On the sidelines of the Taormina summit, Trump is planning to meet individually with British Prime Minister Theresa May. Canadian officials have told reporters Trump will meet with Trudeau on Saturday.

The summit has transformed the sun-splashed tourist island of Sicily into a fortress state, with restaurants, pubs and shops literally battening down the hatches. Wooden planks and metal sheets now fortify most of their fronts, parasols are disappearing from the beach and police units constantly patrol the streets as the ancient Greek colony braces for possible protests of tens of thousands of people.

"It feels like we're bracing for an hurricane," said Maurizio Donato, 39, owner of "Schizzo," a seaside ice cream parlor.

Luigi Sturniolo, 56, a librarian and veteran social activist from the nearby city of Messina, is organizing one of the protest rallies. Last Sunday, along with other 15 activists, he came to Giardini to distribute leaflets that read, in part, "the meeting of the so called 'great seven' is the political expression of a scary global inequality. . .because [they're preparing for] a war on migrants."

"We'll be there to oppose Trump's racism, xenophobia and sexism during his debut on the global stage," the leaflet continued.

Stefano Pitrelli in Giardini Naxos, Italy, contributed to this report.

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