The UN climate chief led a chorus of criticism Thursday over President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from a bedrock climate treaty, calling it a “colossal own goal” that will only harm his country.
Trump released a presidential memorandum Wednesday ordering the withdrawal from 66 global organizations and treaties -- roughly half affiliated with the United Nations -- for being “contrary to the interests of the United States.”
Most notable among them is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which underpins all major international climate agreements.
UNFCCC executive secretary Simon Stiell said Trump’s decision would “only harm the US economy, jobs and living standards.”
“It is a colossal own goal which will leave the US less secure and less prosperous,” Stiell said in a statement.
His remarks were followed by comments from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said he “regrets” the US decision to withdraw from multiple international bodies, without naming any one organization.
“The United Nations has a responsibility to deliver for those who depend on us, and we will continue to carry out our mandates with determination,” Guterres said, while reminding member states of their legal obligations to fund the world body’s budget.
Critics warned Trump’s move will further isolate the country on the global stage.
“It’s critical the United States is a participant in and is actively trying to reduce climate change -- it’s the world’s largest economy, the world’s biggest historical emitter,” Jake Schmidt of the Natural Resources Defense Council told AFP, noting that the United States would be the first of 198 parties to ever leave.
The treaty adopted in 1992 is a global pact by nations to cooperate to drive down planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
“The decision by the world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter to retreat from it is regrettable and unfortunate,” European Union climate chief Wopke Hoekstra said.
Trump has thrown the full weight of his domestic policy behind fossil fuels and derides climate science as a “hoax.”
His administration sent no representative to November’s UN climate summit in Brazil, which is held annually under UNFCCC auspices.
The US Treasury Department announced Thursday it was also pulling out of the UN’s Green Climate Fund, the world’s largest multilateral climate fund.
The UNFCCC was adopted 34 years ago at the Rio Earth Summit and approved by the US Senate by a 92-0 vote during George H.W. Bush’s presidency.
The US Constitution allows presidents to enter treaties “provided two thirds of Senators present concur,” but it is silent on the process for withdrawing from them -- a legal ambiguity that could invite court challenges.
Trump has already withdrawn from the landmark Paris climate accord since returning to office, just as he did during his first term from 2017–2021 in a move later reversed by his successor, Democratic president Joe Biden.
“A future US administration could both rejoin the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement on day one, without needing to go back to the Senate for another round of advice and consent,” Schmidt said. But this would be uncharted territory and legal scholars are not in full agreement.
Jean Su, a senior attorney for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, told AFP: “It’s our contention that it’s illegal for the president to unilaterally pull out of a treaty that required two thirds of the Senate vote,” she continued. “We are looking at legal options to pursue that line of argument.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom, an outspoken Trump critic who is widely seen as a presidential contender, said “our brainless president is surrendering America’s leadership on the world stage and weakening our ability to compete in the economy of the future -- creating a leadership vacuum that China is already exploiting.”
China is the world’s biggest polluter, but it has also become the global leader in renewable energy.
Trump’s memorandum also directs the US to withdraw from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN body responsible for assessing climate science, alongside other climate-related organizations.
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