When President Biden took office in 2021, he issued several executive orders to address climate change. Now, the opposite is happening. President Trump is now in office and is signing EOs at a feverish pace. Many of these actions seek to limit or roll back any changes made by the Biden administration, taking a commonly used “head in the sand” approach to climate policy. Trump’s first move was to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement … again.
Trump began the executive order spree by rescinding 78 EOs of the Biden administration, including one on AI guidelines, before implementing a federal hiring freeze and not authorizing new regulations. Remember that the EO can’t change a law or regulation, but that won’t stop Trump from trying. In other words, some of these things will end up in long legal battles.
Trump withdrew the US from the Paris climate accord during his first term and then brought it back to Biden. Now, history repeats itself. The president also pulled the US out of the deal. This puts the US as one of the few countries not party to the 2015 accord, joining Iran, Libya, South Sudan, Eritrea and Yemen.
This also means that the US is likely to abandon any promises it made under the agreement, including a promise of climate aid to developing countries and a commitment to reduce emissions by up to 66 percent by 2035. The Trump administration must notify the United Nations in writing of its intention to withdraw from the accord, which will take a year to become official.