(Adnkronos) – The White House has announced President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from 66 international organizations, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the agreement that has formed the basis of all major international climate negotiations since 1992. The decision also includes withdrawal from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the body that provides scientific assessments on climate change.
“I regret it,” said European Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra. “The decision of the world’s largest economy and second largest emitter to withdraw is regrettable and unpleasant,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.
The UNFCCC, ratified by the American Congress during George H.W. Bush’s presidency, does not impose mandatory cuts on fossil fuels or emissions, but sets the goal of stabilizing climate pollution to avoid “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” Under its umbrella, historic agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement were born, two milestones of international cooperation.
The treaty also includes the obligation to submit an annual national inventory of emissions: a requirement that the Trump administration has not met in the last year.
The withdrawal from the climate treaty is part of a broader strategy of multilateral disengagement. According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the United States will not continue to “invest resources and credibility in institutions that do not serve or oppose American interests.” The reactions of former Democratic officials were of the opposite sign: former Secretary of State John Kerry called the move “a gift to China” and an incentive for countries and companies that want to avoid climate responsibility.
Trump had already withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement in his first term and did so again on the first day of his new term. With this decision, Washington would become the first country in the world to withdraw from the UNFCCC, which virtually the entire international community adheres to.
Legal uncertainties also remain, as the treaty was ratified by the Senate: it is unclear whether the president can withdraw unilaterally. However, if Congress were to intervene, the Republican majority appears inclined to support the choice.
The memorandum provides for the total withdrawal of the United States from 66 international organizations, including numerous UN agencies such as UN Water, UN Oceans, UNFPA, and also the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Nobel Prize-winning group of scientists that assesses the state of global warming. A decision that could also affect the participation of American federal scientists.
