Statement | CCAP Executive Director Allison Bender-Corbett on the U.S. Withdrawal from the UNFCCC

This week, the United States withdrew from the world’s largest climate pact, alongside 65 other global organizations

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, the United States announced its intention to withdraw from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), alongside plans to disengage from 65 other international organizations deemed, “contrary to the interests of the United States.” The move makes the U.S. the first country to exit the UNFCCC in its 34-year history—a foundational international agreement established to confront the global climate crisis. It marks a significant escalation in the nation’s retreat from global climate action.

Other notable climate-related bodies the U.S. plans to leave include the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). A White House memorandum stated that, for United Nations (UN) entities, withdrawal entails “ceasing participation in or funding to those entities to the extent permitted by law.”

This decision represents the Trump Administration’s latest step toward isolating the U.S.—the world’s largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases—from international efforts to address rising global temperatures. Those temperatures have reached record levels in recent years, fueling increasingly severe and widespread climate impacts in the U.S. and across the globe.

The announcement follows a steady pattern of U.S. disengagement from climate leadership and comes on the heels of a year in which the UN warned that surpassing the critical 1.5°C warming threshold is now inevitable. Over the past year alone, the U.S. has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, reversed the EPA’s endangerment finding and enacted significant cuts to climate funding authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act.

The following is a statement from Allison Bender-Corbett, Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) Executive Director:

“This decision to withdraw from the UNFCCC represents a major step backward for global climate leadership. Isolating the United States will only weaken our ability to confront the climate crisis that is already affecting communities from North Carolina to California, year after year. This is not a political choice—it is a rejection of science. Climate change is not a distant threat—it is here at our doorstep. In just the past few years, we have seen how climate-driven disasters leave communities in disarray for years, strain public resources and drive up costs for families through higher taxes and rising insurance premiums.

Withdrawing from these international bodies is a reckless decision that will further undermine public health and weaken our capacity to protect communities, leaving families with fewer tools and fewer resources when increasingly severe weather-related disasters strike.

This move is also an affront to decades of U.S. climate leadership that helped shape global innovation, advance effective policies and mobilize climate finance for cleaner, more resilient solutions—many of which have strengthened our own economy. While this news is deeply disheartening, one truth remains clear: in the absence of U.S. leadership, countries around the world will continue to step forward and seize the opportunities of the clean energy transition. We will continue to support that progress toward a net-zero, carbon-neutral future.”

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CCAP’s mission is to support every step of climate action, from ambition to implementation. A recognized world leader in climate policy and action, CCAP creates innovative, replicable climate solutions, strengthens capacities, and promotes best practices across the local, national, and international levels to accelerate the transition to a net-zero, climate resilient future. CCAP was founded in 1985 and is based in Washington, DC.