U.S. formally exits Paris Agreement and withdraws from 66 international environmental bodies (January 20, 2026 )
January 20, 2026 — Exactly one year after President Trump signed the executive order initiating withdrawal, the United States formally left the Paris Agreement — the second time the country has exited the accord it helped negotiate. In the same period, the administration ordered U.S. withdrawal from 66 international bodies, conventions, and treaties the president described as "contrary to the interests" of the country, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world's preeminent scientific body on climate change, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) itself — the parent treaty under which the Paris Agreement operates.
The scope of the withdrawal from international environmental institutions was without precedent in American history. The IPCC synthesizes climate science from thousands of researchers worldwide and directly informs the emissions-reduction targets that countries use to set their national climate plans. U.S. scientists have contributed foundational research to IPCC assessments for decades; their formal exclusion from the institutional process complicates future collaboration. The UNFCCC withdrawal means the U.S. no longer participates in the COP negotiating process at all.
The administration also cancelled U.S. participation in the Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) with South Africa, Indonesia, and Vietnam, revoking over $1 billion in pledged support to South Africa and more than $3 billion to Indonesia and Vietnam for clean energy transition funding. These cancellations wiped out grant projects already underway and left partner nations scrambling for alternative financing for commitments made on the basis of U.S. pledges.
| https://earth.org/a-race-to-the-bottom-us-officially-leaves-paris-climate-agreement/ |