ClimateWire | President Donald Trump is withdrawing the United States from the world’s overarching treaty on climate change, furthering his efforts to reverse years of global negotiations toward addressing rising temperatures.
announce to Break ties with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change It came as Trump quit dozens of international organizations, which the White House said no longer serve US interests by promoting radical climate policies and other issues.
Trump has pressured other countries to abandon their carbon-cutting measures, and the move appears to be his latest attempt to destabilize global climate cooperation.
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1992 UNFCCC serves as international structure for efforts by 198 countries To slow down the rate of increasing climate pollution. There is universal participation in this. The US was the first industrialized nation to join the treaty following its ratification under former President George HW Bush – and it will be the only nation to leave it.
The move reflects an intensified effort by Trump to thwart climate efforts compared to his first term, when he decided against leaving the treaty.
A White House fact sheet states, “Many of these entities promote radical climate policies, global governance, and ideological programs that conflict with American sovereignty and economic strength.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the 66 organizations the US is leaving seek to “undermine American sovereignty”, citing gender equality campaigns and “climate chauvinism”.
“President Trump has been clear: It is no longer acceptable to send these institutions into disrepair without showing the blood, sweat, and treasure of the American people,” Rubio said in a statement. “The days of billions of dollars of taxpayer money flowing to foreign interests at the expense of our people are over.”
The move comes as Trump dismantles US climate policies amid hottest decade on record threatens other countries To advance measures to address global warming, which Trump has called a hoax and a “fraudulent job.”
The US did not send a delegation to Brazil for the COP30 climate talks late last year. Instead, administration officials are working to strike fossil fuel deals with other countries or, in one case, use military force to seize their resources. Trump captured Venezuelan powerful President Nicolas Maduro in a US commando raid on Saturday and said he would take control of the country’s vast oil resources.
Trump plans to leave UNFCCC Ordered last February Rubio is required to identify treaties and international organizations that are “contrary to the interests of the United States” and recommend withdrawal from them.
Trump also pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement, a landmark 2015 accord backed by the UNFCCC. This withdrawal will be effective at the end of this month.
“This is a short-sighted, shameful and foolish decision,” said Gina McCarthy, who served as EPA administrator under former President Barack Obama and who now leads a coalition of state and business leaders known as America Is All In. “As the only country in the world that is not part of the UNFCCC treaty, the Trump administration is wasting decades of U.S. climate change leadership and global cooperation.”
fresh blow
Since taking office for a second term a year ago, the Trump administration has sought to undermine US and international climate efforts by threatening and shutting down offices across the federal government. Impose tariffs on countries that support carbon taxes On shipping emissions.
He has overseen a sweeping campaign to erode regulations governing climate pollution in power plants and cars, and his administration has recruited high-profile climate opponents to write a report Promoted misinformation about climate science theories,
Those steps amounted to a blow to US climate policy. Under former President Joe Biden, the US established a series of climate regulations on industry and signed an international agreement to phase out fossil fuels. It built on presidential efforts by Republicans and Democrats to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least three decades.
“We would not be where we are with the original framework convention and we would not be where we are with the historic Paris Agreement without very active U.S. leadership,” said Todd Stern, who served as U.S. climate envoy when the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015.
Former climate officials said Trump’s actions on Wednesday were not surprising given his statements discrediting climate science. But he was no less sharp in his criticism.
“Of all the wreckage that Donald Trump is leaving in his wake, this could be the most consequential and damaging, especially to future generations,” said John Podesta, who coordinated climate policy under Obama and Biden.
Green groups warned the move would have long-term consequences.
Amanda Leland, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund, said in a statement, “Becoming the first major economy to abandon this effort will set American families and businesses back in the global energy transition – leaving them to breathe dirtier air, suffer worse health outcomes, pay higher energy bills, and miss out on the economic benefits that come with the transition to a clean energy future.”
David Widowsky, US director of the World Resources Institute, called the withdrawal from the UNFCCC “a strategic mistake that gives US benefits for nothing in return.”
re-entry option
The U.S. Senate ratified the UN framework 34 years ago, making it a rare environmental agreement that received unanimous support. This could complicate any future president’s efforts to rejoin the treaty.
Some legal experts say the Senate’s consent does not apply permanently once the US leaves the treaty. other people argue That if a president can unilaterally leave a treaty, a future president can rejoin it without a new vote.
“Otherwise, you’re handing over such a huge power to a president to forever void a Senate act,” Gene Galbraith, a University of Pennsylvania law professor who writes about treaties, told POLITICO’s E&E News last year.
Sue Biniaz, former deputy climate envoy under John Kerry, said: “The United States must be the global leader on the climate issue for economic, environmental, and geopolitical reasons, not cede leadership to others.”
But others say the treaty has lost relevance.
“The Framework Convention is a joke,” said George David Banks, who served as Trump’s international climate adviser during his first administration.
He said abandoning it could force the international community to re-examine its process of cooperation on climate change and what he sees as “flaws” in the convention. He pointed to its tendency to separate climate issues from energy or economic concerns that are more central to policy levers.
Nevertheless, Banks has pressed the US to remain engaged in international climate discussions to ensure that global climate policy “does not undermine the economic value of US fossil fuels.”
Trump also announced on Wednesday that he would leave the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and several other important international organizations related to climate and clean energy.
Delta Merner at the Union of Concerned Scientists said, “Walking away doesn’t make science disappear, it only leaves people, policymakers, and businesses across the United States in the dark when reliable climate information is urgently needed.”
According to the terms of the treaty, withdrawal from the UNFCCC will take effect one year after the US submits a request to the UN to leave the treaty.
Jack Coleman contributed to this report.
Reprinted from E&E News With permission from Politico, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.
