During his first moments as the nation’s 47th president Monday, Donald Trump moved to withdraw the United States from the Paris agreement and reverse many of former president Joe Biden’s signature efforts to combat climate change and other pressing environmental problems.
Trump signed an executive order pulling out of the Paris climate accord during an event with supporters at the Capital One Arena in Washington. He slammed the accord as “unfair” and “one-sided,” prompting loud applause from the crowd, and pledged to sign additional executive orders undoing many of Biden’s environmental policies.
The actions drew cheers from the fossil fuel industry but raised fears among U.S. allies about the future of global climate initiatives. The United States ranks as the largest historical emitter of planet-warming greenhouse gases, and its exit from the Paris accord threatens to derail emissions-cutting efforts during a critical four-year period.
Nations pledged in 2015 to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels – a crucial threshold for averting the most catastrophic climate impacts. But scientists recently confirmed that 2024 was the first year to surpass this threshold – and the hottest year on record.
In the additional executive orders, Trump is expected to declare a “national energy emergency,” although the details of that move remain unclear. He is also expected to end the Biden administration’s pause on approving new facilities that export liquefied natural gas, or LNG, and to stop leasing for new offshore wind projects in federal waters.
Trump falsely claimed during his speech at the Capital One Arena that “big ugly windmills” destroy property values and kill birds. While wind turbines can kill birds, research suggests that house cats cause far more bird deaths in the United States each year.
“We will drill, baby, drill,” Trump declared in his second inaugural address earlier Monday, adding that the United States has “the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it.” (In fact, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia have the biggest oil reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.)
It is common for presidents to sign executive orders on their first day that reverse some of their predecessors’ decisions. But the contrast between Biden’s climate legacy and Trump’s energy agenda is particularly pronounced, heralding a seismic shift in policy across the federal government.
Trump had made no secret of his energy agenda for his first day in office, frequently boasting about his plans after his November victory over Biden.
“I will sign Day 1 orders to end all Biden restrictions on energy production, terminate his insane electric vehicle mandate, cancel his natural gas export ban, reopen [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] in Alaska – the biggest site, potentially anywhere in the world – and declare a national energy emergency,” Trump said in December.
Former North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick for interior secretary and “energy czar,” also suggested during his confirmation hearing Thursday that the incoming administration could consider declaring an energy emergency because of soaring electricity demand.
“This is part of a larger crisis our nation is facing around electricity,” Burgum told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
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Pulling out of Paris again
Among Trump’s initial climate moves, the decision to exit the Paris agreement stands as the most internationally consequential, reinforcing a sense that the United States is an unreliable partner in the global effort to reduce emissions. That sense had been growing even before Trump’s election, as the United States expanded its oil and gas production even after joining other nations in pledging to phase out fossil fuels.
“We are back to countries performing actions in their narrow, short-term interests,” said Li Shuo, director of the China climate program at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “That will inform the judgment of all the other political capitals in the world that the zeitgeist of global climate action is not where it should be.”
Though Trump announced a similar action in 2017, at the start of his first term, the circumstances then were different: A rule stated that parties could withdraw from the accord, which came into force in 2016, only once it was three years old. Because the withdrawal process takes a year, the United States technically remained a member of the agreement until Nov. 4, 2020 – one day after voters awarded the presidency to Biden.
This time, the United States will be able to exit the accord more quickly. And the move will come at a perilous time for global climate efforts.
Right-wing parties, particularly in Europe, are gaining traction by pushing back against green policies. Wealthy countries are falling well short in financing climate-related projects in poorer nations, swelling a sense of injustice between the Global North and Global South – and leaving some countries worried about the viability of future global negotiations.
“A lot of countries could use [the U.S. exit] as an excuse to do little,” said Linda Kalcher, a former U.N. climate adviser and the founder of Strategic Perspectives, a Brussels-based climate policy group.
At the same time, many countries see an economic case for the clean-energy transition – and also a political opportunity to fill a power vacuum.
China might have the most to gain, policymakers and experts predict. Already, China’s share of global solar panel manufacturing exceeds 80 percent. And Chinese-made EVs are surging in competition against those of American and European automakers. The United States’ withdrawal from the Paris accord could further cement a perception of Beijing as the superpower that can help the world cope with climate perils.
When Trump pulled out of the Paris agreement for the first time, a group called America is All In announced that dozens of states, cities and corporations were still committed to the pact. Gina McCarthy, the former White House climate czar under Biden and the managing co-chair of America is All In, vowed in a statement to continue that fight.
“Our states, cities, businesses, and local institutions stand ready to pick up the baton of U.S. climate leadership and do all they can – despite federal complacency – to continue the shift to a clean energy economy,” she said.
(c) 2025, The Washington Post · Maxine Joselow, Chico Harlan, Evan Halper