In his early days day in office, President Trump signed a number of orders that will put the United States on a very different environmental path from the Biden administration. The executive orders and memorandums take the first steps to fulfill many of Trump’s promises on the campaign trail: Withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement, drilling for more oil and natural gas, and ending many Biden-era environmental regulations and departments.
While Trump’s one-day orders are far-reaching, it’s unclear how they will be implemented or how quickly they will be heard. Executive orders direct federal agencies how to implement the law, but they can be challenged by courts if they appear to violate the US Constitution or other laws, as happened with Trump’s January 2017 travel ban executive order.
Trump’s executive orders, however, send a clear signal about his administration’s environmental priorities: phasing out fossil fuels, weakening support for green energy, and moving away from global climate leadership.
Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement
This executive order directs the US Ambassador to the United Nations to send formal notice that the US is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Paris Agreement, signed in 2016, obliges countries to reduce pollution and submit five-year updates on their climate plans to reach agreed targets for reducing greenhouse gases.
In his first term, Trump also withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, although the terms of the agreement meant that the withdrawal did not take place until November 2020. In one of his first acts as president, Joe Biden made the US rejoin the Paris Agreement. It will take at least a year for the US to leave the Agreement.
Jonathan Foley, CEO says: “This short-sighted move shows a disregard for science and the welfare of people around the world, including Americans, who are losing their homes, livelihoods, and loved ones to climate change. director of the Climate Charity Project Drawdown.
The executive order also repeals the US International Climate Finance Plan—the Biden administration’s increase in international finance to more than $11 billion a year by 2024. “It’s basically the richest country in the world turning its back on the poorest countries that are suffering the most,” said Bob Ward, director of policy at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change the Environment.
Promoting the Elimination of Fossil Fuels
President Trump has issued three executive orders to make it easier for the US to exploit its oil reserves. On the campaign trail, Trump consistently promised to “drill, baby, drill” and on his first day as president he reinforced this slogan with orders to roll back Biden-era regulations and environmental regulations that limit oil exploration.
One executive order focused on Alaska, which has large oil reserves and was the site of Willow—a controversial oil and gas project approved by the Biden administration in 2023. The US is “accelerating the approval and leasing of energy and natural resource projects” in Alaska and the repeal of any laws passed by the Biden administration that could block this goal. It also expressly revokes the cancellation of leases within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and rescinds an order from the Secretary of the Interior that temporarily suspended oil and gas leasing within the refuge.