Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced today that he has informed the UN that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, the AP reported.

This is the first official step in the 12-month procedure to exit the Global Climate Change Pact. In his message, Pompeo emphasizes that the document is an "unfair economic burden" on the US economy.

The Paris Agreement, signed by nearly 20 countries, provides for each of them to determine its own schedule for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change. The United States is the first country to denounce the agreement. It forbids countries to withdraw from it in the first three years after its ratification on November 4, 2016, the AP recalled.