David Rank, the acting U.S. ambassador to China, resigned Monday in response to President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, CNN reported.

Rank called a town hall-style meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to inform his colleagues that he could not deliver a notice to the Chinese government on the Trump administration’s retreat from the international pact negotiated under former president Barack Obama, according to a tweet from China expert John Pomfret.

Rank, who has worked in the foreign service since 1990, assumed his role as acting ambassador in January 2016. He was the placeholder for President Donald Trump’s pick for the ambassadorial post, former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who Congress confirmed in May and is expected to take up the position later this month.

“[Rank] has retired from the foreign service,” a spokeswoman for State’s East Asia Bureau confirmed to the New York Times, although she didn’t say whether Rank’s resignation had anything to do with Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement. “Mr Rank has made a personal decision. We appreciate his years of dedicated service to the State Department.”

Trump’s announcement of withdrawal last week caused a ripple on Capitol Hill, where members of Congress, largely divided along party lines, either derided or championed the decision.