USAWhite House: Trump will withdraw from Paris climate agreement
SDA
20.1.2025 - 18:50
President Donald Trump. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Pool Getty Images/AP/dpa
Keystone
The new US President Donald Trump once again wants to withdraw from the Paris climate protection agreement to limit global warming. In a statement, the White House named withdrawal as one of Trump's priorities. The withdrawal must be submitted to the United Nations and will take effect after one year.
Keystone-SDA
20.01.2025, 18:50
SDA
This means that the United States will largely withdraw from the international community's fight against global warming. Trump had described the agreement as a "disaster" and a "rip-off" of the United States. The White House statement said that Trump would end the "climate extremism" of his predecessor Joe Biden. According to Trump, there is no such thing as global warming and he repeatedly describes climate change as a "big hoax".
The Paris Climate Agreement aims to limit global warming to well below two degrees compared to pre-industrial times - and preferably to just 1.5 degrees. This target was agreed at the 2015 UN climate summit in Paris and reaffirmed several times at subsequent climate conferences. The aim is to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis - such as more frequent and more severe heatwaves, droughts, forest fires, storms and floods.
The signatory states are to submit plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the UN. Key parts of the agreement are binding under international law. However, there are no penalties for failing to meet the commitments. Almost all countries in the world are part of the agreement. Only Yemen, Iran and Libya have not signed the agreement.
The back and forth of the climate agreement
Trump had already withdrawn the USA from the agreement during his first term of office (2017-2021). However, due to the notice period, the withdrawal only took effect shortly before the end of his term of office in November 2020. By then, it was already clear that the Democrat Biden would replace him in the White House and lead the USA back into the agreement. They officially rejoined the agreement in February 2021. Biden initiated the return to the climate agreement as one of his most pressing tasks on his first day in office on January 20.
By withdrawing for the first time, the Republican Trump had fulfilled a campaign promise, but was unable to withdraw directly from the climate agreement when he took office in 2017, as it could be terminated for the first time three years after its inception. The agreement came into force on November 4, 2016. At the time, Trump had argued that the obligations under the agreement were too costly and put the country at a disadvantage in international competition.
Withdrawal has a strong symbolic effect
Last year, the Earth heated up by more than 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times for the first time - according to calculations by the EU climate service, it was probably the warmest year since weather records began. However, the target agreed at the Paris Climate Conference in 2015 of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees is not yet considered to have been missed, as longer-term average values are decisive for this.
The USA is the world's largest producer and consumer of oil, according to official US data and data from the International Energy Agency (IEA). It has the second-highest greenhouse gas emissions after China, with a significantly smaller population. Against this backdrop, withdrawing from the agreement has a strong symbolic effect - and could encourage others to follow suit.
However, Trump's environmental and economic policy is likely to have a greater impact on climate protection in general than withdrawing from the agreement. It is expected that Trump could lower protection standards, as he did in his first term in office. According to the New York Times, the Republican is preparing to reduce the size of nature reserves in order to clear the way for even more oil drilling and mining.