FILE PHOTO: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius gestures as he speaks during a joint news conference with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in Riyadh January 19, 2016. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser

PARIS (Reuters) - Laurent Fabius, the French politician who chaired talks on a landmark, global climate change deal in 2015, on Wednesday denounced moves by U.S. President Donald Trump to undo Obama-era climate change regulations.

“The initial decisions from the new U.S. president’s administration concerning the battle against global warming constitute a very serious step backwards,” Fabius said in a statement.

Fabius added that such moves were contrary to measures adopted in the December 2015 agreement, known as the COP21 accord.

On Tuesday, Trump signed an order to scrap those Obama-era climate change regulations, keeping a campaign promise to support the coal industry and calling into question U.S. support for an international deal to fight global warming.