US formally exits Paris Agreement again

The United States has officially exited the Paris Agreement, the landmark global accord involving 194 nations, which commits countries to set national climate targets to curb global warming. The U.S. notification of withdrawal formally took effect on Wednesday.

This development makes the United States the only country to have left the Paris Agreement, marking the second time during President Trump’s administration that the U.S. has withdrawn from the international climate accord. The U.S. rejoined the agreement in early 2021, when President Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office to reverse the previous withdrawal.

The Paris Agreement, developed by parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), aims to combat climate change by limiting global temperature increases this century to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, with efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.

In a recent UN speech, Trump referred to climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” and has actively worked in his second term to dismantle the climate-focused initiatives of the previous administration. This includes issuing an Executive Order on his first day in office to withdraw from the Paris Agreement again, revisiting greenhouse gas regulations, cancelling billions in federal clean energy awards, and halting all major U.S. offshore wind projects.

Earlier this month, Trump announced plans to withdraw the U.S. from numerous major international climate, clean energy, and global cooperation organizations, including the UNFCCC, the parent treaty to landmark climate agreements like the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.

Following the President’s Executive Order early last year, the UN issued a notification on January 27, 2025, that the U.S. would withdraw from the agreement, with the withdrawal officially taking effect one year later.

The UNFCCC did not release an official statement on Wednesday regarding the U.S. exit but posted a message on its social media channels, stating: “The Paris Agreement is the world’s shared framework to combat climate change and limit global temperature rise. At COP30 in Brazil, 194 countries representing billions of people reaffirmed their commitment to this vision and resolved to go further, faster, together.”

Despite the U.S. withdrawal, the US Climate Alliance, a coalition of 24 U.S. state governors focused on climate issues, sent a letter to the UNFCCC indicating their intention to remain committed to the U.S.’s Paris Agreement goals. Following the formal withdrawal, US Climate Alliance Co-Chair and California Governor Gavin Newsom stated, “As climate disasters cost Americans trillions, Trump’s answer is to wave the white flag. California won’t retreat. We’ll keep working with our partners around the world to cut pollution, create jobs, and lead the clean energy economy that the Trump administration is too weak to fight for.”