London: US President Donald Trump has claimed that India, China and Russia do not have a sense of pollution and cleanliness. His statement came in context to the World Health Organisation data that shows average air pollution levels are much higher in the three countries than the United States, even as the US remains one of the top countries when it comes to total carbon dioxide emissions.
"China, India, Russia, many other nations, they have not very good air, not very good water in the sense of pollution and cleanliness," Trump said on Wednesday, adding, "They don't do the responsibility."
Trump further said that he was wowed by Prince Charles's passion for fighting climate change and that he also wanted a world that is "good for future generations".
Trump has rolled back environmental regulations and pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord since his surprise election in 2016.
But the mercurial White House chief said he was impressed with Prince Charles's commitment to green causes when he had tea with the heir to the British throne at Buckingham Palace on his arrival for a three-day state visit Monday.
Trump told ITV in an interview aired Wednesday that Queen Elizabeth II's son dominated the conversation with climate talk.
"We were going to have a 15-minute chat. And it turned out to be an hour and a half. And he did most of the talking. He is really into climate change, and I think that’s great, I mean I want that, I like that," Trump said.
"He wants to have a world that is good for future generations and I want that to."
But he also stuck up for his own management of environmental policies. "I did mention a couple of things, I did say, ‘Well the United States right now has among the cleanest climates there are, based on all statistics, and it’s even getting better'," Trump said.
A widely-cited report released by the Rhodium Group in January found that US carbon dioxide emissions rose by 3.4 percent in 2018. The increase was the biggest in eight years.
Prince Charles has spent many years bucking UK conventions that frown on members of the royal family sticking up for political causes. His environmental activism has seen the 70-year-old modify his Aston Martin so that it can run on a fuel mixture that includes white wine.
He also told The Daily Telegraph last year that he tried to run the royal train on recycled cooking oil. "But I don’t know," the prince told the paper. "They say it clogs up the engine or something."
(With inputs from AFP)
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