Citing potential economic damage and unfair burdens, President Trump signed an Executive Order that starts the process of withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement.
The Paris Agreement is an international climate change agreement adopted in December 2015 by nations that are Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ("UNFCCC"). The Executive Order on Paris Agreement withdrawal, signed by President Trump on January 20, 2025 and titled "Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements," starts the process of withdrawing the United States from any agreement, pact, accord, or similar commitment made under the UNFCCC.
The Executive Order directs the US Ambassador to the United Nations ("UN") to immediately submit a formal written notification of the US' withdrawal to the UN Secretary-General, the Depositary of the Paris Agreement. In accordance with the Paris Agreement, the withdrawal would take effect one year after notification, or at a later date specified in the withdrawal notice. However, President Trump has not announced withdrawal from the underlying UNFCCC treaty, which was ratified by the US Senate in the 1990s, and which provided the framework under which the Paris Agreement was negotiated and signed.
In addition to starting the Paris Agreement withdrawal process for the United States, the "Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements" Executive Order seeks to limit the United States' financial contributions to other countries in furtherance of mitigating climate change and adapting to climate change globally. The UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, along with an earlier international agreement among certain countries that are UNFCCC Parties known as the Kyoto Protocol, impose financing obligations on countries that are UNFCCC Annex I Parties, which includes the United States, as well as obligations for these Parties to assist non-Annex I Parties (generally developing States) in their mitigation and adaptation efforts, including through technology transfer and capacity building. The "Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements" Executive Order specifically addresses these obligations, stating that the US "[s]hall immediately cease or revoke any purported financial commitment made by the United States under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change." President Trump also rescinded the US International Climate Finance Plan, which was established following an Executive Order from former President Biden to channel multilateral and bilateral institutions to assist developing countries in climate mitigation and adaptation.
The "Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements" Executive Order does not specifically address the Paris Agreement nationally determined contribution ("NDC") that the United States had communicated to the UN under the Biden Administration. While the NDC process is mandatory for nations that are Parties to the Paris Agreement, and there are no penalties if a party fails to meet its NDC, the content, implementation, and achievement of the NDCs themselves are not legally binding. Countries have full discretion to determine their NDCs. The United States' NDC had set a US economy-wide target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by 61-66 percent below 2005 levels in 2035, among other components.
Nevertheless, other January 20 Executive Orders and additional expected federal government measures may limit the United States' ability to achieve this greenhouse gas emissions reduction target. For instance, another January 20 Executive Order titled Unleashing American Energy disbands the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases, reevaluates the federal government's use of social cost of carbon calculations in permitting, and reevaluates the US Environmental Protection Agency's 2009 determination that current and projected concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations, among other measures.
It is not clear how a US Paris Agreement withdrawal may impact participation by other nations and local governments in international climate change law negotiation and implementation. In 2017, during the first Trump Administration, President Trump attempted to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. This attempt was unsuccessful because the Paris Agreement required that withdrawal at that time take effect four years from a country's invocation of the agreement's withdrawal mechanism. This is different from the current situation, which allows for withdrawal to take effect within one year after invocation. However, when the first Trump Administration attempted withdrawal in 2017, other Parties to the Paris Agreement, and many US state and municipal governments, disapproved of the measure. As a result, US state governments that placed an emphasis on climate change mitigation and adaptation, such as California, continued to implement regulatory programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In 2017, thirty US states and many US cities committed to uphold the Paris Agreement objectives, despite the federal government's then attempted withdrawal. In reaction to the United States' unsuccessful withdrawal in 2017, some Parties to the Paris Agreement—such as France, Germany and Italy—indicated that they will increase their efforts to address climate change.
The "Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements" Executive Order was one of many January 20 Executive Orders that may impact climate change law and policy in the United States and abroad. President Trump's announcement of his intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement also set out his broader initiative to "Make America affordable and energy dominant again," including by "reviewing for rescission all regulations that impose undue burdens on energy production and use."
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