Story highlights The Trump administration is engaged in a fierce debate about how to proceed with the Paris climate deal

Op-ed argues withdrawal "carries major implications for America's place in the geoeconomic order"

Washington (CNN) A veteran Republican official is urging the Trump administration to remain in the Paris climate agreement, co-writing an op-ed arguing "the business case" for the international accord.

The perspective comes as the Trump administration is engaged in a fierce internal debate about how to proceed with the Paris climate deal and whether to explore leaving the accord altogether.

George Shultz -- who served as secretary of state, secretary of labor, treasury secretary and director of the Office of Management and Budget during the Nixon and Reagan presidencies -- lays out the argument in an op-ed published Tuesday in The New York Times with Ted Halstead, president of the Climate Leadership Council.

Shultz and Halstead note the "newly invigorated pro-Paris campaign by many of America's top CEOs," citing a series of "public letters and full-page ads."

"This is as close as big business gets to a consensus position," they write, arguing that "our companies are best served by a stable and predictable international framework that commits all nations to climate-change mitigation." Shultz and Halstead say that a US withdrawal from the Paris deal would cloud the international business climate.

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