Ashley Siefert Nunes
WASHINGTON (January 7, 2026)—President Trump announced today that he is removing the United States from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a Senate-ratified treaty. He also extracted the country from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—the leading global scientific body studying climate change—and 64 other entities or U.N. organizations. While the country has already submitted its letter of intent to leave the landmark Paris climate agreement for a second time, U.S. withdrawal from the UNFCCC has never happened before. Every nation in the world is party to the UNFCCC, which was adopted more than three decades ago and has been upheld by Democratic and Republican administrations in the United States alike. This harmful move comes in the context of multiple actions the administration has taken, including an illegal invasion of Venezuela, to upend global agreements and flout international law.
Below is a statement by Dr. Rachel Cleetus, the policy director and lead economist for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). She has attended the U.N.’s international climate talks and has partnered with the international community on climate and energy policies for 20 years.
“President Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the bedrock global treaty to tackle climate change is 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. But forward-looking U.S. states and the rest of the world recognize that devastating and costly climate impacts are mounting rapidly, and collective global action remains the only viable path to secure a livable future for our children and grandchildren. Withdrawal from the global climate convention will only serve to further isolate the United States and diminish its standing in the world following a spate of deplorable actions that have already sent our nation’s credibility plummeting, jeopardized ties with some of our closest historical allies, and made the world far more unsafe.
“The Trump administration’s shameless lies about the scientific realities of climate change, as well as its attacks on climate and clean energy policies and federal agencies, are deeply harmful to the interests of people in the United States. This administration remains cruelly indifferent to the unassailable facts on climate while pandering to fossil fuel polluters.”
Below is a statement by Dr. Delta Merner, the associate accountability campaign director for the Climate and Energy Program at UCS. She has attended past IPCC meetings as an official observer.
“By pulling the United States out of the IPCC, President Trump is deliberately cutting our nation’s formal participation off from the world’s most trusted source of climate science. The IPCC is where the global scientific community rigorously assesses what we know about climate risks, impacts and solutions. Individual U.S. scientists may still contribute, but our country will no longer be able to help guide the scientific assessments that governments around the world rely on.
“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. This is a clear attempt to weaken scientific guardrails that protect the public from disinformation, delay and reckless decision-making. Such a move will make it easier for fossil fuel interests to distort the facts while frontline communities pay the price.”
The year 2024 was the hottest on record globally and 2025 will soon be confirmed as the second or third hottest, adding to a long-term trend: The last 12 years have been the 12 hottest on record. The United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) 2025 Emissions Gap Report shows that without immediate, aggressive action the world is on track to endure a global average temperature rise of between 2.3 and 2.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels over this century. The U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, which goes into effect later this month, would add another 0.1 degrees Celsius to this range. This far exceeds the Paris Agreement temperature goals of keeping warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible—a science-based goal recognized to significantly limit climate harm globally.
Additional Resources:
- The latest UCS blogposts on harmful anti-science actions taken by the second Trump administration.
- Previous statements by UCS on the repercussions of a Trump presidency on global climate action and U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.
- UCS statement on UNEP report confirming planetary warming will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius
- UCS report “Decades of Deceit: The Case Against Major Fossil Fuel Companies for Climate Fraud and Damages.”
- Blogposts on COP30, the U.N. annual climate talks.