WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is stepping back from a key climate agreement and the world’s main organization for studying global warming as part of a broad withdrawal from the United Nations, according to a statement from the White House on Wednesday.
A total of 66 global organizations were listed in a White House document as being “against the interests of the United States.”
Among them, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) stands out as the foundational treaty that supports all significant global climate agreements.
Trump, who has fully supported his country’s policies favoring fossil fuels, has publicly dismissed the scientific agreement that human actions are causing global warming, mocking climate science as a “fraud” during the UN’s top-level meeting in September.
The Framework Convention on Climate Change was finalized at the Rio Earth Summit in June 1992 and subsequently endorsed by the US Senate under the leadership of George H.W. Bush.
The US Constitution permits presidents to sign treaties “provided that two-thirds of the Senators present agree,” yet it does not specify the procedure for terminating them – a legal uncertainty that may lead to disputes.
Trump has already stepped away from the historic Paris climate agreement since regaining power, similar to what he did in his initial term, a decision that Democratic President Joe Biden later undone.
Leaving the fundamental treaty might create more legal ambiguity regarding any subsequent attempt by the US to rejoin.
“President Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the fundamental international agreement aimed at addressing climate change is a significant decline and further evidence that this autocratic, anti-science government is intent on compromising public health and undermining global collaboration,” Rachel Cleetus from the Union of Concerned Scientists said to AFP.
The memo further instructs the US to exit the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations agency tasked with evaluating climate science, along with other climate-focused organizations such as the International Renewable Energy Agency, UN Oceans, and UN Water.
Similar to his initial term, Trump has also taken the United States out of the Paris Agreement and Unesco—the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization—which Washington had re-joined during Biden’s administration.
Trump has also withdrawn the United States from the World Health Organization and significantly cut international assistance, reducing financial support for various UN organizations and compelling them to reduce their activities on the ground, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Programme.
Other notable organizations mentioned in the memo are the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which deals with sexual and reproductive health and rights, and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which concentrates on trade, investment, and development.
Addressing the General Assembly in September, Trump issued a harsh critique of the United Nations, stating that it was “far from fulfilling” its capabilities.