U.S. climate policy and politics: status of the Paris agreement, and an update on its progress with the UNICEF Paris climate agreement

Within the terms of the Paris Agreement, targets for reductions in emissions are submitted by countries and updates on their progress are provided. The new U.S. goal was to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60 percent from peak levels by mid-century, a goal that would require a rapid transition away from fossil fuels. The target is now pointless.

Though Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement during his first term in office, it wasn’t easy to leave. During its first few years, the administration had to follow restrictions in exiting the accord. It ultimately took nearly four years before the U.S. was actually out of the agreement, said David Waskow, who leads  international climate policy and politics at the World Resources Institute.

He said that he was withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord. “The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity.”

China is currently the largest global emitter of greenhouse gases, though it also leads the world in the deployment of renewable energy. U.S. emissions have been decreasing since the mid-2000s, but it remains the largest historical contributor of total carbon dioxide emissions.

U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement is a wake-up call to reform the world’s climate systems, according to Cleetus

The executive director of the climate charity says that this move shows a disregard for science and the well-being of people all over the world.

“Even now…we’re seeing these droughts, storms, heat waves, flooding, sea level rise accelerating,” Cleetus said. “It is just stunning already the kinds of impacts that are unfolding.”

The US Ambassador to the United Nations is required to submit a formal notification of the US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Paris Agreement, signed in 2016, commits countries to reduce greenhouse emissions and submit five-yearly updates on their climate plans to reach agreed goals on reducing emissions.

“This moment should serve as a wake-up call to reform the system, ensuring that those most affected – communities and individuals on the front lines – are at the center of our collective governance,” Tubiana said.

But the world is not currently on track to meet these goals. Last year was the hottest in human history, as global average temperatures hovered around that 1.5 degree Celsius level of warming.

First Day of Trump’s Clean-Going Campaign: Executive Orders in Alaska and Other Proximity-Project-Messenger Laws

In the order that was signed on Monday, Trump told the UN ambassador to prepare for the U.S. exit. The Senate has not yet voted on the nominee for ambassador to the UN. While the order says U.S. withdrawal will be effective “immediately” once notice is given, the Paris Agreement itself stipulates that the process takes a full year.

President Trump made it his priority to change the environmental trajectory of the United States on his first day in office. The executive orders and memoranda take the first steps to fulfilling many of Trump’s promises from the campaign trail: Withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement, drilling more oil and natural gas, and repealing multiple Biden-era environmental directives and departments.

One executive order focuses specifically on Alaska, which has vast fossil fuel reserves and was the location for Willow—a controversial oil and gas project approved by the Biden administration in 2023. Trump’s executive order opens the doors wide open to other projects, calling for the US to “expedite the permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects” in Alaska and the revocation of any regulations passed by the Biden administration that may hinder this aim. The Secretary of the Interior temporarily paused oil and gas leasing in the refuge, but it has now been repealed and withdrawn.

Major climate policies could include the EPA’s new rules limiting emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants, as well as fees for methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.

The US International Climate Finance Plan was increased by the Biden administration to over $11 billion a year, but will be removed from the order. “Essentially it’s the world’s richest country turning its back on the the poorest countries at the time when they are suffering the most,” says Bob Ward, policy director at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change the the Environment.

While Trump’s day-one executive orders are far-reaching, it’s not yet clear how they will be implemented or how quickly they will be felt. Executive orders direct government agencies how to implement the law, but they can be challenged by courts if they appear to violate the US Constitution or other laws, as happened with Trump’s travel ban executive order in January 2017.