Trump Signs Executive Order Withdrawing the United States From the Paris Agreement
On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14162, Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements, at the White House in Washington, announcing that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement and directing the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations to submit formal notification of the withdrawal to the U.N. Secretary-General immediately. It was among the series of executive orders Trump signed on his first day in office.
The order describes the Paris Agreement as an agreement concluded under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Under the order, the United States withdraws from the Paris Agreement and from any agreement, pact, instrument or obligation the United States has undertaken under that convention. Appendix A of the order carries Trump's letter of notification to Secretary-General António Guterres; the letter notes that the Paris Agreement was adopted in Paris on December 12, 2015.
On timing, the order states that the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement shall be effective immediately upon the submission of the notification to the Secretary-General, and that the United States regards the withdrawal as effective at that moment. Under the withdrawal clause of the Paris Agreement itself, a party's withdrawal ordinarily takes effect one year after notification; the executive order adopts different language, stating the U.S. position that the withdrawal is effective immediately.
On funding, the order directs that all financial commitments made by the United States under the Framework Convention be halted or revoked, and instructs agencies to stop or cancel funding provided under any agreement concluded under the convention. The order also revokes the U.S. International Climate Finance Plan and all related actions and efforts.
The order further directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue guidance within 10 days on freezing and clawing back funds previously disbursed under the International Climate Finance Plan.
The Paris Agreement was adopted at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015, setting the goal of holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees; the United States joined the agreement in 2016. During his first term, Trump announced a U.S. withdrawal from the agreement, and the United States subsequently left it; President Biden brought the United States back into the agreement in 2021. This executive order marks the second time the United States has announced its withdrawal from the accord.
(Source: The White House)
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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