President Trump on Monday signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the agreement between nearly all countries to combat climate change.
By withdrawing, the United States will join Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only four countries not party to the agreement, under which countries work together to keep global warming below levels that could lead to environmental disaster.
This move is one of several energy-related announcements published over the past hours Following his inauguration, this marks another complete shift in US engagement in global climate negotiations. During his first term, Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement, but then President Biden quickly returned in 2020 after winning the White House.
Scientists, activists and Democratic officials attacked the move as one that would exacerbate the climate crisis and be counterproductive for American workers. Along with other energy measures taken by Trump on Monday, the withdrawal from the agreement signals his administration’s determination to double down on fossil fuel extraction and production efforts, and move away from clean energy technologies such as electric cars and power-generating wind turbines.
“If they want to get tough on China, don’t punish American automakers and hard-working Americans by handing the keys to our clean cars to the Chinese,” said Gina McCarthy, a former White House climate adviser and former head of the Environmental Protection Administration. . “The United States must continue to demonstrate leadership on the international stage if we are to have any say in how trillions of dollars in financial investments, policies, and decisions are made.”
Trump on Monday also signed a letter to the United Nations, which administers the agreement, informing the world body of the withdrawal. The withdrawal becomes official one year after the letter is submitted.
American efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions were already stalling in 2024, and Mr. Trump’s entry into office makes it increasingly unlikely that the United States will meet ambitious pledges to reduce them further. Emissions fell only slightly last year, by 0.2 percent, compared to the previous year. According to estimates Published this month by the Rhodium Group, a research company.
Despite continued rapid growth in solar and wind energy spurred by the previous administration’s signature climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, emissions levels remained relatively flat last year due to surging electricity demand nationwide, which led to a surge in the amount of natural gas. . Burned by power plants.
The fact that emissions have not fallen much means that the United States is far from achieving Biden’s goal, announced last month under the auspices of the Paris Agreement, of cutting greenhouse gases by 61 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. Researchers say that all major economies They will have to cut their emissions dramatically this decade to keep global warming at relatively low levels.
In a scenario in which Trump rolls back most of Biden’s climate policies, U.S. emissions could fall only 24 to 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, the Rhodium Group found.
“President Trump is choosing to begin his term appeasing the fossil fuel industry and its allies,” the Union of Concerned Scientists said in a statement. “His disgraceful and devastating decision is an ominous harbinger of what people in the United States should expect from him and his anti-science government.”
Since 2005, emissions in the United States have fallen by about 20%, a significant decline at a time when the economy has also expanded. But to meet its climate goals, US emissions will need to fall about 10 times as quickly as they have fallen over the past decade.
The United States is also a major emitter. Because of policies promoted by both Republicans and Democrats, the United States now produces more crude oil and natural gas than any country in history. Mr. Trump has pledged to increase production and exports.
While the United States may not be a party to the Paris Agreement, it will remain part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which hosts annual climate negotiations known as COPs. This year’s Conference of the Parties is scheduled to be held in Brazil in November, and countries will announce new pledges to reduce emissions.
one A recent study by the Climate Action TrackerA research group found that if every country follows through on the pledges it has officially made so far, average global temperatures will be on track to rise about 2.6 degrees Celsius, or 4.7 degrees Fahrenheit, above pre-industrial levels by the end of the year. last century, well above the 1.5°C target originally set by the Paris Agreement.
“Trump’s irresponsibility is not surprising,” said Christiana Figueres, a Costa Rican diplomat and architect of the Paris Agreement in 2015. “In time, Trump will no longer exist, but history will point to him and his fossil fuel friends without a pardon.”