Brown says Trump’s ‘outlandish’ climate stance will inspire world

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Gov. Jerry Brown delivers the State of the State address at the...

Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday highlighted what he sees as the upside of President Trump’s unwillingness to confront climate change: Much of the rest of the world may be inspired to fight harder.

The governor spoke during a visit with Germany’s environmental minister in San Francisco, where the two leaders pledged to curb greenhouse gas emissions a week after Trump rescinded the U.S. commitment to the Paris climate agreement.

Brown, who has emerged as one of Trump’s most outspoken critics on the climate issue, returned a day earlier from a five-day trip to China, where he met with the nation’s president and provincial heads to discuss ways to halt global warming in the absence of leadership in Washington.

“With President Trump taking such an outlandish position, he has actually heightened the focus on climate change,” Brown said. “He’s given the climate action movement a thrust that it could never have generated on its own. We’re taking much more aggressive action because of what Trump has done.”

California and Germany were early backers of the Under2 Coalition, an international climate pact that now has the support of 175 cities, states and nations representing nearly 40 percent of the global economy.

The coalition was a precursor to last year’s landmark Paris accord, with the same goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions so that temperatures don’t rise more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels — the point at which scientists expect catastrophic problems.

Lloyd Blankfein wasn't the only one who tweeted his opposition to President Donald Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Accrod on climate change. Scroll through this gallery to see some of the reactions from Bay Area and tech leaders. less Lloyd Blankfein wasn't the only one who tweeted his opposition to President Donald Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Accrod on climate change. Scroll through this gallery to see some of the ... more Photo: Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook Photo: Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook Image 1 of / 22 Caption Close Brown says Trump’s ‘outlandish’ climate stance will inspire world 1 / 22 Back to Gallery

German Federal Minister for the Environment Barbara Hendricks, who joined Brown to address reporters at the state building in San Francisco after a closed-door meeting between the two, was critical of Trump and his decision to abandon the Paris deal. But she said she was encouraged by the alternate route chosen by California and its Democratic governor.

“After the disappointing news we received from the White House, we’ve also heard strong voices raised in the United States that want to continue the progressive way toward a climate-friendly society,” Hendricks said through a translator. “The trend toward an eco-friendly world is unstoppable and irreversible.”

Trump, who has been relatively silent on the dangers of global warming since calling the concept a “hoax” before becoming president, called the Paris agreement that was ratified by 148 nations a bad deal for the United States. He said countries like China and India weren’t bearing a fair share of the costs of greenhouse gas reductions and said he would consider renegotiating the deal.

Many political analysts say reworking the hard-won agreement is a nonstarter, though Hendricks said the world hadn’t given up on finding a way to get Trump back on board.

“We will continue to reach out to the U.S. administration to come back to the table for climate action,” she said.

Brown also expressed hope that the president would come around.

“You can’t go against every country in the whole world except, what is it, Nicaragua and Syria?” he said, referring to t he other nations who chose not to join the accord. “And if you’ve noticed, Trump doesn’t always stay the course. He does change his mind. I believe that the federal government, at some point, will turn to a more environmentally friendly policy.”

Following Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris deal, Brown joined the governor of Washington state, Jay Inslee, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both Democrats, in rolling out the U.S. Climate Alliance. The initiative marks an attempt by U.S. states that are concerned about global warming to maintain their commitments under the Paris accord.

In the past week, nine additional states have signed on to the alliance: Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia.

“The United States, by withdrawing under Trump, has taken a backseat, but that’s very temporary,” Brown said.

The governor cited his trip to China as evidence that other world powers were still looking to the United States to help tackle the issue.

China has become the de facto leader in the climate change fight, hosting a series of meetings this week on clean technology and carbon reduction between global energy ministers. While the conference was scheduled before Trump’s Paris decision, the symbolism was not lost on its participants.

“China is very serious about dealing with global warming,” Brown said. “And the fact that they would link with California and give me the reception they did, tells me that California is respected worldwide. ... I think it’s a positive sign for what we’re doing.”

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander