The Trump administration has withdrawn the United States from 66 multilateral organisations that it describes as “wasteful, ineffective, and harmful” – including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which coordinates the world’s response to climate change and has the buy-in of every other country in the world.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Women, UN Oceans, UN Water, UN Conference on Trade and Development and the Peacebuilding Commission are some of the 31 UN organisations that the US has withdrawn from.

Included in the 35 non-UN bodies are a host of groups dealing with issues such as climate, peace and trade. These include the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is the global scientific body studying climate change; the International Renewable Energy Agency, the Global Counterterrorism Forum, and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.

According to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who President Trump credited for identifying the 66 groups, the organisations are “redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity”.

Second-largest emitter

“The UNFCCC underpins global climate action. It brings countries together to support climate action, reduce emissions, adapt to climate change, and track progress.  The decision by the world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter [of greenhouse gas] to retreat from it is regrettable and unfortunate,” said European Union (EU) Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra 

Dr Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) described the US withdrawal from the “bedrock global treaty to tackle climate change” as “a new low and yet another sign that this authoritarian, anti-science administration is determined to sacrifice people’s well-being and destabilize global cooperation”.

Her colleague, Dr Delta Merner, added: “Walking away doesn’t make the science disappear; it only leaves people across the United States, policymakers, and businesses flying in the dark at the very moment when credible climate information is most urgently needed”.

Democratic leaders of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) said that Trump “is abandoning America’s international leadership and allowing competitors and adversaries to step into the void we leave behind”. 

They added: “At a time when climate change impacts are accelerating – whether it’s ever-worsening fire seasons, more intense hurricanes, or prolonged droughts – choosing withdrawal over leadership is shortsighted and profoundly irresponsible. Climate change does not respect borders, and we cannot address this crisis alone.

The UN had not responded at the time of publication.

Image Credits: Giorgia Galletoni , Wikimedia Commons.