Trump orders US withdrawal from Paris Agreement, revokes Biden's climate actionsExBulletin

President Trump signed a series of executive orders Monday after his inauguration, including an order beginning the process of withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement. Sean Gallup/AP .

switch captionSean Gallup/AP

President Donald Trump is once again withdrawing the United States from the Paris agreement.

Under the international climate deal, first negotiated in 2015, countries around the world agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in a bid to limit global warming and prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

Trump argued the deal placed an unfair burden on the U.S. economy, and he withdrew the U.S. during his first term. The United States officially joined under President Joe Biden in 2021.

On Monday, Trump restarted the process by signing an order on stage in front of supporters at Capital One Arena, just hours after taking office.

“I am immediately withdrawing from the unfair and unilateral Paris climate agreement scam,” he said in earlier remarks, to cheers from the audience. “The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity.”

China is currently the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, although it is also the world leader in renewable energy deployment. U.S. emissions have declined since the mid-2000s, but they remain the largest historical contributor to total carbon dioxide emissions.

The decision to exit the Paris Agreement was not a surprise, given that Trump's campaign had announced the departure months ago.

But it comes after the hottest year on record, with massive wildfires still burning in Los Angeles and just months after devastating hurricanes pummeled communities from Florida to North Carolina. Climate change increases the risk of hurricanes, leads to more extreme precipitation, and makes more intense and destructive wildfires more likely.

Environmental groups harshly criticized the decision. Rachel Cleetus, policy director of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental watchdog group, said the human and economic consequences of climate change will only get worse if the United States does not do its part to limit warming.

“Even now we are seeing accelerating droughts, storms, heat waves, floods and sea level rise,” Cleetus said. “It’s already just astounding to see the kind of impacts that are happening.”

Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and architect of the Paris Agreement, said in a statement that the United States' withdrawal from the agreement was regrettable. But, she added, international climate action “has proven resilient and stronger than the policies and politics of any country.”

“This moment should serve as a wake-up call to reform the system, ensuring that the most affected communities and individuals on the front lines are at the center of our collective governance,” Tubiana said.

An ambitious global tool but so far insufficient

Under the Paris Agreement, nearly every country in the world agreed to a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

But the world is not currently on track to achieve these goals. Last year was the hottest in human history, with global average temperatures hovering around 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming.

Under the terms of the Paris Agreement, countries submit emissions reduction targets and provide periodic updates on their progress. Before Biden left office, he announced a new U.S. goal: reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% from peak levels by 2035, a goal that would likely require a rapid fuel transition fossils. This objective is now irrelevant.

In the order signed Monday, Trump directed his U.N. ambassador to submit formal notification of the U.S. exit. (Trump's nominee for U.N. ambassador, Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, has not yet been confirmed by the Senate.) While the order states that the U.S. withdrawal will take effect “immediately” once notification is given, the Paris Agreement itself states that the process takes a full year.

Even though Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement during his first term, it was not easy to leave. The administration was subject to restrictions on exiting the agreement during its early years. It ultimately took nearly four years before the United States withdrew from the deal, said David Waskow, who directs international climate policy at the World Resources Institute.

“It’s a lot different this time,” Waskow said.

Leaving the deal could prove detrimental, Waskow said, potentially marginalizing the United States from some clean energy and green technology markets and reducing its influence over other countries. This could hamper some of Trump's broader economic goals for the United States.

Trump has been hostile to many renewable energy initiatives and other climate measures, including efforts to promote electric vehicles. His nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, acknowledged the reality of human-caused climate change during his confirmation hearing, but indicated that the Trump administration would seek to repeal many environmental regulations.

Roll back Biden-era climate efforts

Trump also issued a series of other orders on Monday aimed at boosting fossil fuels and rolling back Biden-era initiatives to limit greenhouse gas emissions. He declared a national energy emergency and revoked many of Biden's executive orders on climate change. New orders direct agencies to roll back restrictions on offshore drilling and reconsider protections for Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Trump also issued a moratorium on new wind energy projects on federal lands, suspending new leases and permits for onshore and offshore wind farms. He revoked an executive order that required government regulators to assess the risks of climate change to the financial system. And he asked agencies to review any regulations that could “burden the development of the nation’s energy resources.”

That could include key climate policies from the Biden administration, including EPA rules limiting emissions from coal and gas power plants and new fees on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.

Julia Simon contributed reporting to this story.

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