Trump’s decision to remove US out of UNFCCC may cause reverberating impacts on climate action worldwide, experts say
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For President Donald Trump, climate change is ‘the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world’. His actions during his US presidency have certainly reflected this sentiment: in the thirteen months since his inauguration, Trump has unleashed a cataclysmic array of cuts – from suspending support for bodies such as the World Health Organisation and the UN Human Rights Council, to ceasing major USAID funding across charities and NGOs.
Now, Trump’s latest announcement to exit dozens of international organisations – including many whose work involves combating climate change – is likely the most dramatic step he has taken against global climate action yet.
One such organisation that the US is shunning is the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a bedrock treaty which underpins global efforts to prevent global warming and first brought countries together to discuss the climate crisis 34 years ago. No nation has ever attempted to leave the treaty.
In essence, Trump’s move signals the US will no longer take part in any international talks about climate change. Unlike his decision to exit the Paris Agreement – which was reversed by Biden, before being reinstated by Trump – leaving the UNFCCC may be a more permanent move. Ambiguity in US law may prevent future presidents from attempting to rejoin.
In addition, Trump’s withdrawal means the US government will no longer be eligible to attend global climate talks – known as COPs – and will be the only country in the world unable to participate in debates about climate change. As such, if the withdrawal goes forward, it could remove the US from the fight for a better planet for much longer than just Trump’s presidency.
Removing one of the world’s major players from climate discussions has also worried climate advocates about the likelihood of achieving consensus at COPs. Previously, the US played a pivotal role in securing the Paris agreement, as well as a 2023 agreement to phase out fossil fuels. Essentially, the nation helped to iron out hesitation from countries such as Saudi Arabia and China. Without them, concerns are being raised that large emitters may frustrate agreements on fossil fuels – a sight seen at COP30, where oil-producing countries blew off talks to produce a ‘road map’ on transitioning away from oil and gas.
‘It is sad to attend international meetings and see an empty space where the United States should be,’ said vice president for international strategies at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, Kaveh Guilanpour. ‘This is harmful to the world, because the enormous energy, innovation, and authority of the United States is missed.’
In total, Trump has cut out 66 bodies – with around half of them UN-related – according to the BBC. Groups impacted include those working on gender equality, conflict and development. The White House said such decisions were taken because the entities ‘no longer serve American interests’ and promote ‘ineffective or hostile agendas’.
‘The Trump administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a statement.
The US will also quit agencies and organisations including the Carbon Free Energy Compact, the United Nations University, the International Cotton Advisory Committee, the International Tropical Timber Organization, the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the Pan-American Institute for Geography and History, the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies and the International Lead and Zinc Study Group.
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According to the White House, many of the organisations promoted ‘radical climate policies, global governance and ideological programs that conflict with US sovereignty and economic strength.’
Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief and executive secretary of the UNFCCC, has described the US’s most recent decision to leave multiple organisations as a ‘colossal own goal’.
‘While all other nations are stepping forward together, this latest step back from global leadership, climate cooperation and science can only harm the US economy, jobs and living standards, as wildfires, floods, mega-storms and droughts get rapidly worse. It is a colossal own goal which will leave the US less secure and less prosperous.’
‘This is a shortsighted, embarrassing and foolish decision,’ said former top climate advisor to Joe Biden, Gina McCarthy.
‘As the only country in the world not a part of the UNFCCC treaty, the Trump administration is throwing away decades of US climate change leadership and global collaboration.’
‘This administration is forfeiting our country’s ability to influence trillions of dollars in investments, policies and decisions that would have advanced our economy and protected us from costly disasters wreaking havoc on our country.’
