Angela Merkel says it was ‘right’ to confront Donald Trump over climate change

German leader Angela Merkel was right to confront Donald Trump over the need to tackle climate change, her spokesman has said.

A day after she had suggested that Germany and Europe could no longer rely on the US under the leadership of Mr Trump, there was a doubling down on the German Chancellor’s comments.

Her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the Chancellor remained committed to strong trans-Atlantic relations, but her suggestion after meetings with Mr Trump, that Europe can no longer entirely rely on the US, “speaks for itself”.

“[US-German relations] are a strong pillar of our foreign and security policy, and Germany will continue working to strengthen these relations,” said Mr Seibert. “Precisely because they are so important, it’s right to name differences honestly.”

Last week, Mr Trump was pressed by leaders of the G7 to keep the US in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, an accord agreeing to cut carbon dioxide emissions that Barack Obama signed his name to. The agreement involves almost 200 countries, and experts say it is essential if the planet is to have any chance of tackling catastrophic climate change.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change

10 show all 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change

1/10 A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris

2/10 Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid

3/10 Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella

4/10 Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali

5/10 Smoke – filled with the carbon that is driving climate change – drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon

6/10 A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain

7/10 Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. “Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals,” says the photographer. “Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow.” Rizwan Dharejo

8/10 A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati

9/10 A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a “public health emergency”. Leung Ka Wa

10/10 Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

On the election trail, Mr Trump called climate change science a hoax, and suggested he would pull out of the agreement, as he believed it was bad for business. After Mr Trump returned to Washington, it was reported that he had decided to withdraw the US, despite the protestations of Europe.

Speaking over the weekend at an event in Bavaria, Ms Merkel had stressed the need for friendly relations with the US, Britain and Russia, but added: “We Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands.”

Ms Merkel said the traditional western alliance was threatened by the new US presidency and Brexit, and “the times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days”.

Angela Merkel : ‘We Europeans must take our destiny into our own hands’

The Associated Press said Germany has also bristled at criticism from Mr Trump over Nato spending and the country’s large trade surplus. Ms Merkel is looking ahead to elections in September, when she is seeking her fourth term.

Her main challenger, the Social Democrat’s chancellor candidate Martin Schulz, was even more outspoken in his comments about the G7 and Nato meetings last week, saying the summits made clear Mr Trump was a “President of the United States of America who wants to humiliate others, who presents himself like an authoritarian ruler”.

“Europe is the answer, and stronger cooperation between the European countries at all levels is the answer to Donald Trump,” Mr Schulz said on ARD public television. “And above all else we must not submit to Trump’s arms-race logic.”

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Mr Trump’s actions had “weakened” the West, and his “short-sighted” policies had hurt the interests of the EU.