America’s Irreversible Goodbye to Climate Governance

In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from 66 international organizations deemed “redundant, poorly managed, unnecessary, costly, ineffective,” or that were instruments of America’s adversaries. Among them are various United Nations agencies and, most significantly, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the latter of which is the backbone of global climate governance.

During his first term, President Trump removed the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. But a newly elected President Joe Biden promptly returned the nation to the agreement in 2021, making it a central gesture of his climate diplomacy. The episode exposed the fragility of America’s international climate policy: A simple change in administration could send the U.S. in or out of sweeping, long-term agreements, rendering global climate commitments mere extensions of domestic, partisan politics.

About the Author

Samuel Furfari

Samuel Furfari is a professor of energy geopolitics in Brussels and London, a former senior official with the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy and a member of the CO2 Coalition. He is author of the paper “Energy Addition, Not Transition” and 18 books, including Energy Insecurity: The organised destruction of the EU’s competitiveness.

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In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from 66 international organizations deemed “redundant, poorly managed, unnecessary, costly, ineffective,” or that were instruments of America’s adversaries. Among them are various United Nations agencies and, most significantly, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the latter of which is the backbone of global climate governance.

During his first term, President Trump removed the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. But a newly elected President Joe Biden promptly returned the nation to the agreement in 2021, making it a central gesture of his climate diplomacy. The episode exposed the fragility of America’s international climate policy: A simple change in administration could send the U.S. in or out of sweeping, long-term agreements, rendering global climate commitments mere extensions of domestic, partisan politics.

About the Author

Samuel Furfari

Samuel Furfari is a professor of energy geopolitics in Brussels and London, a former senior official with the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy and a member of the CO2 Coalition. He is author of the paper “Energy Addition, Not Transition” and 18 books, including Energy Insecurity: The organised destruction of the EU’s competitiveness.