Trump Withdraws US From Landmark Climate Treaty, 65 Other Bodies

President Donald Trump has ordered the United States to withdraw from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), marking the most far-reaching US retreat yet from the international system governing global climate action. Trump’s Executive Order 14199 also obliges the United States to withdraw from 65 other international organizations, including 30 other UN bodies and 35 non-UN entities, as part of a broader pullback from multilateral institutions tied to climate, energy, and environmental policy.

The decision makes the US the first and only country to leave the UNFCCC, the 1992 treaty that serves as the legal and institutional foundation for global climate negotiations involving 198 countries. The convention was ratified unanimously by the US Senate in October 1992 and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, making it one of the rare environmental treaties to receive bipartisan backing.

Under the treaty’s rules, withdrawal takes effect one year after a formal notice is submitted to the United Nations. Once finalized, the move will bar the United States from participating in UN climate negotiations, including the annual Conferences of the Parties, or COPs, where governments negotiate emissions targets, finance mechanisms, and rules governing the global energy transition.

The White House framed the decision as part of a broader effort to exit international bodies it says conflict with US sovereignty and economic priorities. “Many of these bodies promote radical climate policies, global governance, and ideological programs that conflict with US sovereignty and economic strength,” the administration said in a fact sheet accompanying the order.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the 66 organizations seek to “constrain American sovereignty” through what he describes as climate and gender equity agendas. “It is no longer acceptable to be sending these institutions the blood, sweat, and treasure of the American people, with little to nothing to show for it,” Rubio says.

The move bars the United States from providing any funding or financial support to the 66 bodies or their initiatives. Following the decision, the administration also pulled the United States out of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the primary multilateral vehicle for channeling climate finance from developed to developing countries. The fund was created under the UNFCCC framework to help poorer nations reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts. 

“Our nation will no longer fund radical organizations like the GCF whose goals run contrary to the fact that affordable, reliable energy is fundamental to economic growth and poverty reduction,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement released after the decision. While the US had pledged $4 billion to the GCF under Democratic administrations, Trump rescinded this commitment in February, a first for the funding body.

Critics argue both moves undermine US influence over trillions of dollars in global clean energy and resilience investments. The United Nation’s top climate official, Simon Stiell, described the UNFCCC exit as a “colossal own goal,” warning it could harm US economic competitiveness as climate impacts intensify. David Widawsky, US Director, World Resources Institute, calls the move “a strategic blunder that gives away American advantage for nothing in return.”

Gina McCarthy, Head, America Is All In coalition of states and businesses, calls the decision “shortsighted, embarrassing, and foolish.” “As the only country in the world not a part of the UNFCCC treaty, the Trump administration is throwing away decades of US climate leadership and global collaboration,” McCarthy says. “This administration is forfeiting our country’s ability to influence trillions of dollars in investments, policies, and decisions.” 

Beyond UNFCCC and the GCF, Trump’s executive order withdraws the United States from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the International Renewable Energy Agency, the International Solar Alliance, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Additional exits include the Carbon Free Energy Compact, the United Nations University, the International Tropical Timber Organization, the International Cotton Advisory Committee.

Trump’s All Out Assault on Climate Policy

The UNFCCC withdrawal builds on a series of actions taken during Trump’s second term to dismantle domestic and international climate policy. In July, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rescinded the “Endangerment Finding,” a 2009 legal ruling declaring that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions put public health and welfare at risk. The ruling provided the basis for the Clean Air Act, a tool that allowed the government to regulate emissions from vehicles, engines, power plants, and oil and gas operations. On Aug. 8, the administration announced it would be ending the “Solar for All” program, a US$7 billion initiative providing solar energy to low-income households across the country, including specific allocations for Native American Nations. 

That same month, the United States was one of several oil-producing countries to block a legally-binding UN Global Plastics Treaty, which would have phased out petroleum-based plastics and introduced new extended producer responsibility (EPR) requirements. Trump has also used Washington’s economic and geopolitical leverage to pressure other countries to scale back their own climate commitments. Since taking office, his administration has pledged to impose tariffs and port fees on nations seeking a global agreement to decarbonize the shipping industry, while requiring trading partners to purchase US oil and gas. 

Meanwhile, for the first time in its history, the United States did not send a delegation to the COP30 climate talks in Brazil last year, despite being formally a party to the Paris Agreement at the time. Upon taking office in January 2025, Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris accord for a second time, threatening the survival of the landmark 2015 UN treaty that aims to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. 

Todd Stern, who served as US climate envoy during the Paris negotiations, said US leadership was central to building the existing climate architecture. “We would not have been where we were with the original framework convention and we would not be where we are with the landmark Paris Agreement without very active US leadership,” Stern says.

The move embodies Trump’s total rejection of multilateralism in the face of critical global issues, particularly on climate, says Ian Johnstone, Professor of International Law, Tufts University’s Fletcher School. “This is a frontal assault on the international legal and institutional order,” says Johnstone. “It signals what has long been clear: that the Trump Administration is ideologically opposed to multilateral cooperation of any sort.”