The US will once again withdraw from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels agreed to by more than 195 members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Under an executive order signed by President Trump yesterday, the US will withdraw within a year. This puts the US in line with Iran, Yemen and Libya who have also not joined the agreement. In 2020, also under Trump, the US withdrew from the agreement before it was revoked by President Joe Biden. According to Trump, the withdrawal would have saved the US more than $1 trillion.
In the same development, Trump also gave orders to increase oil and gas production, repealed vehicle emissions standards and pledged to stop the construction of offshore wind farms. Any international climate finance commitments made under the previous administration were also stopped.
The year 2024 has been confirmed by the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service as the warmest year on record. The average global temperature last year was 15.1 Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial (1850-1900) global average. It was also 0.12 Celsius warmer than 2023, the year with the highest average temperature.