Apple CEO Denounces President’s Withdrawal from Paris Climate Accord

In an email to his employees Thursday afternoon, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, lambasted the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris Climate Accord —assuring them of Apple’s unwavering commitment to a variety of environmental initiatives, and that regardless of the White House’s decision, Apple’s corporate efforts to stave off the perilous effects of climate change will carry on.

In the email, a copy of which was obtained by Axios, Cook appeared to concede with employees that while he personally reached out to the President in an (unsuccessful) attempt to sway him in favor of the Paris Accord and its many benefits to the U.S. and the world, Trump ultimately ignored Cook’s advice and decided to withdraw from the agreement on Thursday afternoon in a televised address from the White House Rose Garden.

While Apple’s personal environmental contributions have been far-reaching in both benefit and virtue, the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, citing a myriad of economic disadvantages to the U.S., was met with mixed reactions on Thursday from members of Congress, energy industry heavyweights, and politicians around the world.

Unfortunately for Trump, these repercussions were piling on as of Friday morning, with several tech executives announcing decisions to abandon their posts on key White House advisory councils. Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder, Elon Musk, in addition to Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, for example, both submitted formal resignations on Friday morning to leave their posts on Trump’s White House technology and business advisory boards.

Iger and Musk were just two of 19 executives on these councils, however the responses from other members has been fairly mixed thus far — with some, like Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and IBM CEO, Virginia Rometty, indicating that they’ll continue serving on President Trump’s council; and others, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Microsoft President Brad Smith, for example, merely slamming the President’s decision on various social media platforms.

Nevertheless, Apple Forges On

Even despite the President’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, Apple’s myriad of efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, shift operations to being powered by 100% renewable energy, and various other renewable energy projects will forge on. Tim Cook made this clear in his letter to employees, reaffirming Apple’s strong stance on a variety of Green initiatives.

“Climate change is real and we all share a responsibility to fight it,” Cook expressed in his email. “I want to reassure you that today’s developments will have no impact on Apple’s efforts to protect the environment. We power nearly all of our operations with renewable energy, which we believe is an example of something that’s good for our planet and makes good business sense as well.”

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