Jakarta, INTI - Donald Trump has drawn widespread criticism after declaring that the UInited States will withdraw from a cornerstone international accord aimed at tackling the climate crisis, a move that further distances the country from global efforts to curb rapidly rising temperatures. 

In a presidential memorandum released on Wednesday, Trump announced the US exit from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), along with the withdrawal from 65 related organizations, agencies, and commissions, which he described as being “inconsistent with the interests of the United States.”

The UNFCCC serves as the foundation of global collaboration in addressing climate change and has been endorsed by every nation since it was established 34 years ago. The treaty was formally ratified by the US Senate in October 1992.

Global Backlash and Warnings Over Economic Impact 

Trump has repeatedly dismissed climate science as a “fraud” and a "deception," while as president he has worked to weaken clean energy initiatives and roll back climate-related policies. His actions have sought to keep the United States and other nations dependent on fossil fuels, resources widely blamed for intensifying heatwaves, storms, droughts, and conflicts that threaten billions of people worldwide.

Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief and executive secretary of the UNFCCC, labelled the decision a “colossal own goal.” He warned that as other countries move forward collectively, the US retreating from global leadership, climate collaboration, and science, an approach he said would ultimately damage the American economy, employment, and living standards as wildfires, floods, severe storms, and droughts continue to escalate. According to Stiell, the move would leave the US less secure and less prosperous.

Former White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy also strongly criticised the decision, calling it short-sighted, humiliating, and deeply misguided. 

“As the only country in the world not a part of the UNFCCC treaty, the Trump administration is throwing away decades of US climate change leadership and global collaboration. This administration is forfeiting our country’s ability to influence trillions of dollars in investments, policies and decisions that would have advanced our economy and protected us from costly disasters wreaking havoc on our country.”

Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, also criticized the move, calling Trump’s withdrawal from the UNFCCC an “unforced error” and “self-defeating,” arguing it would further erode the United States’ ability to compete with China, which is rapidly strengthening its position in the global clean energy technology market.

“While the Trump administration is abdicating the United States of America’s global leadership, the rest of the world is continuing to shift to cleaner power sources and take climate action,” Bapna said.

“The Trump administration is ceding the trillions of dollars in investment that the clean energy transition brings to nations willing to follow the science and embrace the cleanest, cheapest sources of energy.”

Legal Uncertainty and Deepening International Isolation 

Highlighting the administration’s opposition to efforts addressing a climate now hotter than at any time in human history, the White House memorandum also confirms that the United States will withdraw from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN’s leading climate science authority. The memo further outlines plans to exit several international environmental bodies, including the International Renewable Energy Association, the International Solar Alliance, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Trump had previously announced that the US would leave the Paris climate agreement, under which countries committed to limiting dangerous levels of global warming. The administration also chose not to send a delegation to the UN climate negotiations held in Brazil last year.

Because the UNFCCC was ratified by the US Senate, legal questions remain over whether Trump can revoke the treaty on his own or whether a future administration could re-enter the framework without seeking renewed Senate approval. “Letting this lawless move stand could shut the US out of climate diplomacy forever,” said Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity. 

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said in a statement that the agreements abandoned by the administration on Wednesday were “often dominated by progressive ideology and detached from national interests”.

However, the climate crisis is widely recognised as a scientific reality and is already exacting a growing and measurable impact on economies and everyday life. In the United States, an unprecedented rise in severe weather disasters has pushed insurers to withdraw from several states, putting increasing strain on the property market. Scientists have also cautioned that global temperatures are on track to surpass previously established limits, a development expected to intensify future climate-related disasters.

“On the one-year anniversary of the wildfires that stole dozens of lives, thousands of homes and the sense of safety for millions as it reduced Los Angeles communities to ash, Trump is making it clear he has no interest in protecting Americans from the rapidly increasing impacts on our health and safety of the worsening climate crisis,” said Loren Blackford, executive director of the Sierra Club. “This is not leadership. It is cowardice.”

Al Gore, the former US vice-president and climate activist, told the Guardian: “The Trump Administration has been turning its back on the climate crisis since day one, removing the United States from the Paris Agreement, dismantling America’s scientific infrastructure, curbing access to greenhouse gas emissions data, and ending essential investments in the clean energy transition.”

“They’ve done this at the behest of the oil industry, so that billionaires can rake in even more money while polluting our planet and endangering people in America and around the world,” Gore said. 

The United States will also withdraw from a number of other international organizations and agencies, including the Carbon Free Energy Compact, the United Nations University, the International Cotton Advisory Committee, the International Tropical Timber Organization, the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the Pan-American Institute for Geography and History, the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies, and the International Lead and Zinc Study Group.

The US State Department added that further reviews of other international commitments are still under way.

Conclusion 

Trump’s withdrawal from the UNFCCC and multiple international bodies has intensified global criticism and raised questions about the United States’ future role in climate diplomacy. As climate risks escalate and nations move toward cleaner energy and coordinated action, the decision could leave the US increasingly isolated from both international leadership and the economic opportunities of the global energy transition. 

Read more: Indonesia Strengthens Clean Energy Financing to Advance a Just Transition