Experts decry move to leave UNFCCC as ‘embarrassing’ as president orders withdrawal from 66 international groups
Donald Trump has sparked outrage by announcing the US will exit the foundational international agreement to address the climate crisis, cementing the US’s utter isolation from the global effort to confront dangerously escalating temperatures.
In a presidential memorandum issued on Wednesday, Trump stated that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is, along with 65 other organizations, agencies and commissions, “contrary to the interests of the United States” and will be ditched.
The UNFCCC treaty forms the bedrock of international co-operation to deal with the climate crisis and has been agreed to by every country in the world since its inception 34 years ago. The US Senate ratified the treaty in October 1992.
Trump has, however, routinely ridiculed climate science as a “scam” and a “hoax” and has actively hobbled clean energy projects and other climate policies as president, attempting to force the US and other countries to stay wedded to the fossil fuels that are driving disastrous heatwaves, storms, droughts and conflicts that imperils billions of people around the world.
I think if people understood the fukkin scale of things they wouldn’t be this blaise about Trump ruining our world.
Even if some magical Socialism Champion fell from the sky and was nurtured by climate activists to take the seat of power and people universally loved them, it would take decades at this point to fix half the shit that Trump’s goons broke.
Everyone knows Trump could die tomorrow and bets are favoring he won’t live through the next year. There will be celebrating in the streets and the GOP broadly will fall to pieces as everyone tries to grasp onto the fleeting traces of power left behind, and it will seem great… as we elect some neo-lib like Gavin Newsom in 2028 who will promptly resume our status-quo descent into corporate oligarchy and preserving the assets and interests of capital. About 30% of his executive orders will per performatively repealed and we will keep the blockade around Venezuela and and ICE will still be on the streets. Because all of this is good for the bottom line.