WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from a bedrock climate treaty was slammed on Thursday by the EU, which vowed to keep tackling the crisis with other nations.
The White House on Wednesday flagged the US exit from 66 global organisations and treaties — roughly half affiliated with the United Nations — it identified as “contrary to the interests of the United States.”
Most notable among them is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the parent treaty underpinning all major international climate agreements. The treaty adopted in 1992 is a global pact by nations to cooperate to drive down planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
European Union climate chief Wopke Hoekstra said the UNFCCC “underpins global climate action” and brings nations together in the collective fight against the crisis.
“The decision by the world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter to retreat from it is regrettable and unfortunate,” Hoekstra said in a post on LinkedIn.
UN climate chief says the president scores ‘own goal’ with treaty retreat
“We will unequivocally continue to support international climate research, as the foundation of our understanding and work. We will also continue to work on international climate cooperation.” Trump, who has thrown the full weight of his domestic policy behind fossil fuels, has openly scorned the scientific consensus that human activity is warming the planet, deriding climate science as a “hoax.”
Treaty retreat
The UN climate chief led a chorus of criticism on Thursday over President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from a bedrock climate treaty, calling it a “colossal own goal” that will only harm his country.
UNFCCC executive secretary Simon Stiell said Trump’s decision would “only harm the US economy, jobs and living standards.” “It is a colossal own goal which will leave the US less secure and less prosperous,” Stiell said in a statement.
Critics warned that it will further isolate the country on the global stage, noting that the United States would be the only UN member that is not part of the treaty.
The move “is a strategic blunder that gives away American advantage for nothing in return,” said David Widawsky, a director of the World Resources Institute think tank.
Fight looms
The UNFCCC was adopted 34 years ago at the Rio Earth Summit and approved by the US Senate during George H.W. Bush’s presidency. The US Constitution allows presidents to enter treaties “provided two thirds of Senators present concur,” but it is silent on the process for withdrawing from them — a legal ambiguity that could invite court challenges.
Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2026
