For decades, the world’s scientists and governments have worked together to tackle the most significant challenge of our lifetimes: the climate crisis. The ongoing work of the IPCC, UNFCCC, and other global institutions remains essential to safeguarding humanity’s future. The Trump Administration’s decision to remove the United States from these vital organizations sends the wrong message to our allies abroad and fails to protect Americans from increasingly dangerous impacts of the climate crisis at home.
The Trump Administration has been turning its back on the climate crisis since day one, removing the United States from the Paris Agreement, dismantling America’s scientific infrastructure, curbing access to greenhouse gas emissions data, and ending essential investments in the clean energy transition. They’ve done this at the behest of the oil industry, so that billionaires can rake in even more money while polluting our planet and endangering people in America and around the world.
By withdrawing from the IPCC, UNFCCC, and the other vital international partnerships, the Trump Administration is undoing decades of hard-won diplomacy, attempting to undermine climate science, and sowing distrust around the world. Fortunately, 198 minus one does not equal zero. While the U.S. federal government sits on the sidelines, world leaders, local and state governments, and the private sector will continue to move forward with the clean energy transition and uphold the goals set forth in the Paris Agreement because it is in their best interest to do so. Clean energy remains the most affordable, scalable, and sustainable solution to meet the energy demands of the future and with this reckless decision the United States will only be left behind.