`United States Moves to Withdraw from UN Climate Treaty - Olive Oil Times
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United States Moves to Withdraw from UN Climate Treaty

By Costas Vasilopoulos
Jan. 14, 2026 19:36 UTC
Summary Summary

The United States has announced its inten­tion to with­draw from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), cit­ing national inter­est con­cerns in a pres­i­den­tial direc­tive pub­lished by the White House, along with plans to exit 65 addi­tional United Nations and mul­ti­lat­eral orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the Green Climate Fund. This deci­sion has sparked shock­waves in diplo­matic and envi­ron­men­tal cir­cles, with con­cerns that the U.S. with­drawal will iso­late the coun­try from inter­na­tional cli­mate nego­ti­a­tions and hin­der global efforts to slow down global warm­ing.

The United States has offi­cially announced its inten­tion to with­draw from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the world’s pri­mary cli­mate treaty and the frame­work that under­pins agree­ments such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.

The deci­sion was for­mal­ized in a pres­i­den­tial direc­tive pub­lished by the White House, cit­ing national inter­est con­cerns.

The move fol­lows a series of U.S. with­drawals from inter­na­tional insti­tu­tions, includ­ing the World Health Organization and UNESCO, the United Nations agency respon­si­ble for cul­ture and edu­ca­tion.

The Trump admin­is­tra­tion also said the coun­try will exit 65 addi­tional United Nations and mul­ti­lat­eral orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the sci­en­tific body that pro­vides gov­ern­ments with research and assess­ments to inform cli­mate change pol­icy.

Established in 1992, the UNFCCC cre­ated the legal frame­work for global nego­ti­a­tions to address cli­mate change.

Its annual Conference of the Parties sum­mits, known as COPs, serve as the treaty’s pri­mary deci­sion-mak­ing forum, bring­ing together rep­re­sen­ta­tives from nearly every coun­try to nego­ti­ate emis­sions reduc­tions and cli­mate mit­i­ga­tion strate­gies.

The admin­is­tra­tion also con­firmed that the United States will with­draw from the Green Climate Fund, the pri­mary inter­na­tional financ­ing mech­a­nism that sup­ports cli­mate adap­ta­tion and resilience efforts in devel­op­ing coun­tries.

“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,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The United States has con­tributed approx­i­mately $2 bil­lion to the fund over the past decade.

The announce­ment has sent shock­waves through diplo­matic and envi­ron­men­tal cir­cles in the United States and around the world.

NBC News reported that with­draw­ing from the UNFCCC and related U.N. bod­ies would effec­tively remove the United States from inter­na­tional cli­mate nego­ti­a­tions, iso­lat­ing the coun­try from col­lec­tive efforts to slow global warm­ing.

Manish Bapna, pres­i­dent of the Natural Resources Defense Council, described the deci­sion as an ​“unforced error” that could allow other nations to lead the global tran­si­tion to clean energy.

“It is not only self-defeat­ing to let other coun­tries write the global rules of the road for the inevitable tran­si­tion to clean energy, but also to walk away from tril­lions of dol­lars in invest­ment, jobs, lower energy costs and new mar­kets for American clean tech­nolo­gies,” Bapna said.

In Europe, cli­mate com­mis­sioner Wopke Hoekstra wrote on X that the UNFCCC under­pins global cli­mate action, call­ing the deci­sion by the world’s largest econ­omy and sec­ond-largest emit­ter to retreat from it ​“regret­table and unfor­tu­nate.”

Later this month, the United States is expected to for­mally with­draw from the Paris Climate Agreement for the sec­ond time. The coun­try first exited the accord in 2019, then rejoined in 2020 under then-President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The Paris Agreement seeks to limit global warm­ing to 2°C, and prefer­ably 1.5°C, above pre-indus­trial lev­els — tar­gets the United Nations sec­re­tary-gen­eral has said are already being missed.

Scientists have long warned that ris­ing global tem­per­a­tures are inten­si­fy­ing extreme weather events world­wide, with recent data con­firm­ing record-break­ing heat across mul­ti­ple regions.

The World Meteorological Organization has also reported that global car­bon diox­ide emis­sions reached record lev­els in 2024, fur­ther com­pound­ing con­cerns over accel­er­at­ing cli­mate change.

As one of the world’s largest emit­ters, the United States has his­tor­i­cally played a cen­tral role in efforts to curb global warm­ing. Under President Donald J. Trump, how­ever, the admin­is­tra­tion has shifted its energy pri­or­i­ties, favor­ing fos­sil fuels over renew­able sources.

If the with­drawal pro­ceeds, the United States would become the first coun­try to for­mally exit the UNFCCC.

The process is expected to take approx­i­mately one year. Any future deci­sion to rejoin the treaty would require rat­i­fi­ca­tion by a two-thirds major­ity in the U.S. Senate.

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