What consequences will the U.S. withdrawal have for international climate action?

“Assume the worst and you will never be disappointed”. The old saying couldn’t fit Donald Trump’s recent moves better. He can be accused of many things, but not being explicit about his aims is no longer one of them. The erratic Trump 1.0 of his first term has given way to a Trump 2.0 determined to dismantle the world order that has governed international relations for the past 80 years, an order in which the United States was a central architect.

On 7 January, the president of the United States ordered the withdrawal of his country—both in terms of membership and funding—from 66 international organizations, treaties, and conventions. Thirty-one of these belong to the United Nations system and work primarily to coordinate and advance climate action, promote renewable energy, and support sustainable development.

This is the chronicle of a death foretold. Trump had already hinted at this direction in his speech from the podium of the UN General Assembly in New York last September, and made it unmistakably clear on 25 November with the publication of his National Security Strategy. The operation carried out in Venezuela on 3 January to detain the country’s de facto president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife was the clearest demonstration yet that Trump follows through on some of his threats, no matter how unthinkable they may seem to many.

How to understand the U.S. “great withdrawal”

The withdrawal of the United States from 66 international bodies is not a simple retrenchment or passive abandonment of multilateralism. We see it as a ‘no quarter’ attack onto the institutional frameworks that underpin global cooperation. These are not isolated exits, but a systematic attempt to discredit and drain the political, scientific, and financial global architecture that has enabled climate and sustainability action for decades now.

Among the bodies the United States is disengaging from are the core political and scientific institutions of global climate governance, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the IPCC. Also affected are key organizations promoting sustainable development, such as UNDESA, and non-UN bodies that support the development of renewable energy, including IRENA and REN21.

Trump’s decisions were already apparent to anyone listening carefully to his speech before the UN General Assembly in September 2025, where he described climate change as “the greatest scam ever perpetrated on the world” and warned his counterparts in the room: “If you don’t walk away from the green energy scam, your country will fail.”

More recently, in the National Security Strategy published in November 2025, the Trump administration clearly stated that multilateral cooperation through international institutions would not be its preferred tool. Instead, military, economic, and political dominance would be the main instruments of a foreign policy explicitly designed to serve the administration’s central objective: Putting “America First” to “Make America Great Again.”

A close reading of the strategy makes it clear that, beyond merely “limiting multilateralism,” Trump seeks to shift the centre of decision-making away from international forums and toward Washington—or, at best, toward bilateral arrangements and a form of governance based on U.S. regional influence and dominance in the Western Hemisphere. This approach is not guided by universal principles enshrined in the UN Charter or other international treaties, but by the US national security and economic interests.

What can we expect now?

In light of the statements and actions of the Trump administration so far, we can already discern the pillars of its international climate policy:

• Energy and fossil fuel dominance. The United States will prioritise the production and export of oil, gas, and coal, both domestically and across its spheres of influence, downplaying the energy transition,directly clashing with the global shift toward renewables.
• Diplomacy of force and domination. From military actions in Latin America to geopolitical tensions in the Arctic, U.S. foreign policy is increasingly oriented toward dominance through power rather than cooperation.
• Disinformation and attacks on science, scientists and activists. The dismantling and defunding of institutions that produce key scientific assessments, the removal of official climate-related data, and the green light given to disinformation—all under the banner of protecting freedom of expression.

It is likely that in the coming months we will continue to see statements and actions hostile to multilateralism, as part of a broader attempt to dismantle the international order that has shaped global relations for decades. But this does not necessarily signal the end of international cooperation as such. Rather, it points to a profound transformation of how cooperation is organised, governed, and exercised.

As institution-driven multilateralism weakens, cooperation is increasingly morphing into a more fragmented, less centralised model: smaller coalitions of countries, ad hoc alliances, regional blocs, and issue-specific partnerships coordinating around technology, climate, energy, and natural resources. 

This emerging order is defined less by universal rules and shared institutions, and more by spheres of influence, strategic interests, and flexible arrangements designed to advance national or regional priorities. The risk is clear: more rivalry, less trust, and widening gaps in areas such as peace and security where cooperation is already faltering. 

Against this backdrop, the challenge for climate and sustainability actors is not only to defend the multilateral system as we knew it, but to understand, anticipate, and actively shape these new forms of cooperation, ensuring they remain capable of delivering collective solutions to global risks that no country or organisation can manage alone.

Authorship: 10 Billion Solutions – Climate and sustainability communication

You are invited to use and reproduce this article published under Creative Commons license CC BY. This license allows you to reuse the work, but credit must be provided in all cases to 10 Billion Solutions.

Cover photo: President Donald Trump delivers remarks to House Republicans at the Donald J Trump – John F Kennedy Center Credit White House