US announces withdrawal from UN climate agreement, other climate organisations
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In a move without precedent, the United States announced on Thursday that it was withdrawing from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the landmark 1992 treaty that establishes the core principles and rules for addressing climate change. With this decision, the US has become the first and only country to exit the agreement, which otherwise includes every nation in the world as a member.
The exit from the UNFCCC was part of a broader withdrawal from as many as 66 international treaties and organisations, which the US administration said no longer aligned with American interests.
Among the bodies the US decided to disengage from were several major climate- and environment-related institutions, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the International Solar Alliance (ISA), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and UN Oceans.
According to a statement issued by the White House, the decision followed a comprehensive review ordered earlier this year of all international organisations, conventions and treaties that the US either belongs to, funds, or supports. The administration said these withdrawals would bring an end to American funding and participation in bodies that it believes prioritise global agendas over national interests, or that it considers inefficient or ineffective in addressing key issues, arguing that taxpayer money could be better utilised elsewhere, Indian Express reported.
The move follows the US withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement soon after Donald Trump began his second term as president last year. Trump had also pulled the country out of the Paris accord during his first term, a decision that was reversed when his successor, Joe Biden, rejoined the agreement.
Taken together, Thursday’s announcements amount to a complete retreat by the United States from international climate cooperation and represent a major blow to global efforts to combat climate change.
The UNFCCC serves as the cornerstone of the international climate regime, formally recognising climate change as a global problem and outlining the principles for tackling it. Major climate agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and the Paris Agreement of 2015 operate under its framework, much like individual laws functioning within the broader structure of a constitution.
Trump, who has repeatedly questioned the science of climate change, has taken several steps over the past year that critics say have severely undermined decades of progress on climate action, both domestically and internationally. The decision to withdraw from the IPCC, in particular, is expected to have serious consequences for global climate science, given the central role US scientists have historically played in the panel’s work, which has so far produced six comprehensive assessments of the state of climate change worldwide.