New Delhi, Jun 2 (UNI) Terming US president Donald Trump withdrawal from the Paris accord as "death knell" of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, eminent environmentalist Sunita Narain of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said, "the US cannot continue to keep the world hostage." "Pulling out of the Paris Agreement would mean that with five per cent of the world population, the US will continue to jeopardise the remaining 95 per cent. Countries need to hold the US accountable for decisions that have a global impact,” said Ms Narain, reacting to Mr Trump announcement made last night in Washington. Mr Trump, while making the announcement also made a list of complaints against India, falsely saying New Delhi was demanding "billions and billions" of foreign aid to conform to the deal, and claiming that the accord will allow India to double coal production by 2020. "The withdrawal is on America's interest and won't matter much to the climate," he maintained. Deputy director general, CSE Chandra Bhushan said, "The US is not only the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, but also one the major current emitters. Without the active and ambitious contribution from the US, any action to combat climate change under the Paris Agreement will be insufficient by a huge margin." Mr Bhushan further said, "Even if other countries, including the developing countries, raise their ambition, they would not be able to fill in the void left by the US. It is, therefore, not sufficient to shift the burden of addressing climate change to other countries -- including China and India." The US President’s decision has come at a time when there has been an alarming increase in both the frequency and magnitude of climate-related impacts across the globe, calling for more concerted efforts to address climate change. “The future of the climate change regime has been shackled with this announcement. We are already on the path to a dangerous temperature rise of even up to 3 degrees Centigrade. The only foreseeable future course would be for the remaining countries to come together to modify the Paris Agreement to make it effective,” said Mr Bhushan. The objective of the agreement is to prevent an increase in the global average temperature, and keep it well below 2 degree Celsius. The Agreement, considered as a landmark move forward, was adopted on December 12, 2015 by 195 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), replacing its predecessor Kyoto Protocol. The Agreement was finally ratified on November 4, 2016. UNI SHS SNU 1632