Donald Trump orders mass US pullout from international organisations

Donald Trump has decided to withdraw the US from the world’s most important climate treaty, as well as from dozens of other international organisations, as the president intensifies efforts to upend decades of global co-operation tackling rising temperatures.

In a presidential memorandum issued on Wednesday evening, Trump said the US would withdraw from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and 65 additional UN and other multilateral groups, mostly linked to the environment, renewable energy, development, education and the promotion of democracy and human rights.

They include the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global body of climate scientists, the International Trade Centre, the UN Population Fund and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. On Thursday, US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the US would also pull out of the Green Climate Fund, the world’s biggest climate fund, and give up its seat on the GCF board.

Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN’s climate arm, said the US was “instrumental in creating” both the UNFCCC and the Paris agreement, adding its departure was a “colossal own goal” that would leave the country “less secure and less prosperous”.

The 1992 UNFCCC treaty underpins international co-operation to deal with climate change. The latest announcement comes almost a year after Trump, who last year branded climate change a “con job”, announced that he would pull the US from the 2015 Paris climate agreement for the second time. During his first term, the US became the first and so far only country to withdraw from the accord, but Joe Biden rejoined.

The White House said the decision to pull out of a total of 66 international organisations, including 31 UN entities, was intended to save US taxpayers money and advance Trump’s “America First” agenda. 

“American taxpayers have spent billions on these organisations with little return, while they often criticise US policies, advance agendas contrary to our values, or waste taxpayer dollars,” the White House said in a factsheet issued alongside the executive order.

But the move was met with heavy criticism from climate experts and organisations, as well as politicians. 

Wopke Hoekstra, the EU’s climate commissioner, said the decision by the world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter to retreat from the UNFCCC was “regrettable and unfortunate”, adding that the treaty “underpins global climate action”. 

Former US vice-president Al Gore said the work of the IPCC, UNFCCC and other global institutions was “essential to safeguarding humanity’s future”.

“By withdrawing from the IPCC, UNFCCC and the other vital international partnerships, the Trump administration is undoing decades of hard-won diplomacy, attempting to undermine climate science and sowing distrust around the world,” he said. 

“Fortunately, 198 [signatories to the treaty] minus one does not equal zero.”

Despite Trump’s decision to pull the US from the Paris agreement last year, no other country has followed his approach.

As one of the world’s biggest emitters, the US has long played a crucial role in global efforts to tackle climate change. Many countries are now increasingly looking to China — the world’s largest emitter but also the dominant player in green technology — to drive progress. 

Former US secretary of state John Kerry, who worked as Joe Biden’s presidential envoy for climate, said the withdrawal from the climate treaty was “par for the course” for the Trump administration. 

“But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a gift to China and a get-out-of-jail-free card to countries and polluters who want to avoid responsibility.”

The past three years have been the hottest on record, with scientists warning climate change is making extreme weather events more intense. 

The actual impact of the US withdrawal on many of the UN bodies singled out by Trump would depend on how aggressively his administration followed through on its announcement. 

The head of one of the UN bodies named in the executive order said that the full effect of the move would become clear only during the UN’s annual budget allocation process. 

“If they want to be difficult they could block the adoption of our budget. So it depends on how far they want to take it,” the person added.

Although the list caused anguish among environmental groups, it did not go as far as originally envisaged on trade and economic matters after the administration quietly dropped the World Trade Organization and the OECD from its list of potential targets last year.

In October it emerged that Trump had authorised the payment of $25mn in overdue subscriptions to the WTO, despite the administration deriding the organisation as “toothless” only a month previously. 

The list also did not include the International Maritime Organization despite the Trump administration’s successful — and diplomatically bruising — move last year to block the IMO’s plan to introduce a net zero framework for shipping.

Sue Biniaz, the former US climate negotiator, said she hoped the retreat from the UNFCCC treaty was “a temporary one”, adding there were “multiple future pathways to rejoining the key climate agreements” in future.

Stiell of the UNFCCC agreed: “The doors remain open for the US to re-enter in the future, as it has in the past with the Paris Agreement. Meanwhile the size of the commercial opportunity in clean energy, climate resilience, and advanced electrotech remains too big for American investors and businesses to ignore.” 

He added: “While all other nations are stepping forward together, this latest step back from global leadership, climate co-operation and science can only harm the US economy, jobs and living standards, as wildfires, floods, megastorms and droughts get rapidly worse.”

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