The best response to the US President's announcement withdrawing from the Paris Climate Change Agreement is "increased ambition in tackling climate change", according to the Green Party.

Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan called on the Irish Government to "change tack".

He said: "We cannot express our disappointment about what the Americans are doing and at the same time continue to let Ireland be a real laggard when it comes to taking climate action.

"We have everything to gain by making the radical leap to a new clean economy. We will continue to attract investment from those thousands of American companies that are now also joining the resistance to what Trump is doing.

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"It is time to work with our European colleagues to introduce diplomatic sanctions against the American administration. It is hard to see how the US can continue to play a leading role in International organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) when they are abandoning the Paris Agreement and the co-operation it entails.

"As Angela Merkel stated last week the American and British administrations can no longer be trusted when it comes to international co-operation. Our response has to be to join those countries who are ramping up their ambition to implement what we have committed to in Paris. Perhaps in a strange way Trump's period in office will prove to be a force that galvanises us into action."

(CD/MH)