After Seizing Venezuela Oil, Trump Quits 66 International Organisations: The Impacts

On the first anniversary of one of the biggest wildfires in US history, which scientists found was made more likely by climate change, US President Donald Trump made the unprecedented move to withdraw from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The decision now makes the US the only country in the world withdraw from the international treaty for negotiating an agreement to limit dangerous climate change and combat human interference with the climate system. Trump’s move is the latest step in an organised assault against climate action, following the military campaign against Venezuela to oust its leader and ensure millions of barrels of oil supplies to the US, which would further increase the emissions intensity of the world’s biggest historical polluter.  

Trump Quits the UNFCCC, the IPCC and 64 Other International Treaties and Organisations Tackling Pressing Climate and Environmental Issues

With a presidential memorandum from Jan. 7, the US administration announced it will withdraw from the UNFCCC, the foundational international agreement to address the climate crisis. The move cements the US, the biggest historical emitter, as the most isolated country in the global effort to confront the climate crisis. The UNFCCC, the key body for addressing the climate crisis, was launched 34 years ago and has been agreed to by every country in the world, with the US participating since the start.

According to Michael Glennon, professor of constitutional and international law at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, chances that the US courts will overturn Trump’s actions were “virtually nil”. Reports indicate that the withdrawal would take a year to take effect, and experts remain divided on whether the US could rejoin the UNFCCC under a future president without another Senate vote.

Besides the UNFCCC, the US is withdrawing from 65 other organisations, agencies and commissions. Among them is the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s most trusted source of climate science. However, the US Academic Alliance for the IPCC issued a statement noting that, “with the support of the USAA-IPCC, more than 70 US citizens and US-based experts who are currently serving the IPCC as coordinating lead authors, lead authors, review editors and committee members will continue to play these roles,” meaning Trump’s decision will have little impact on their work. 

The US Treasury also announced the immediate withdrawal of the US from the Green Climate Fund. According to Joe Thwaites, international climate finance director of Natural Resources Defense Council, while this has long been known, it won’t have a new impact on funding levels. However, the US would essentially give up any say over the allocation of already paid-in US funding, which the expert describes as “a dereliction of the administration’s responsibility to American taxpayers”.

Among the 66 treaties, organisations and international bodies that the US will now leave are also the International Renewable Energy Association (IRENA), the International Solar Alliance, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The State Department even announced that additional reviews are ongoing, indicating that it can withdraw from other treaties and organisations dedicated to preserving the climate and the environment.

Last year, in one of the first moves of his second term, Trump quit the Paris Agreement. Toward the end of 2025, the US refused to send a delegation to UN climate talks in Brazil, while the Trump administration also hired marginalised experts to write a report promoting misinformation about climate change. 

Scientists were quick to criticise Trump’s administration’s “shameless lies about the scientific realities of climate change”, branding them “deeply harmful to the interests of people in the United States”.

“To be the first major economy to abandon this effort would set American families and businesses back in the global energy transition — leaving them to breathe dirtier air, face worse health outcomes, pay higher energy bills and miss out on the economic gains that come with leading the shift to a clean energy future,” said Amanda Leland, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund.

‘Contrary to the Interests of the United States’

The US administration didn’t hide the reason for withdrawing from the treaties and agencies tackling the climate crisis, stating that their missions contradicted the interests of the United States. 

Since Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office, he has made it clear that the US’ interests align with those of the fossil fuel lobby instead of climate science. Under Trump’s leadership, the US, which has emitted a total of 542 billion tonnes of CO2 since 1850, by burning fossil fuels, cutting down trees and other activities, is now planning to scale up fossil fuel exploration and use, with Trump branding coal “beautiful”, “cheap” and “incredibly efficient”. Furthermore, he has continuously pressured other countries to abandon their carbon-cutting measures.

In one of his recent moves, the US president launched a military campaign against Venezuela, overthrowing its leader, Nicolas Maduro. Estimates by the US Energy Information Administration reveal that the South American country, a founding member of OPEC, holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves at 303 billion barrels, or 17% of the global total. Following the move, Trump announced that US oil companies are about to invest “billions of dollars” to tap into Venezuela’s oil reserves. Furthermore, the White House announced plans to control Venezuela’s oil reserves “indefinitely”. However, Exxon Mobil’s leadership declared the country “uninvestable”, insisting on looking at projects that are better aligned with a long-term horizon. 

“The actions of this past week alone — from seizing the Venezuelan president to withdrawing from the UNFCCC — show that this administration has a callous disdain for world peace and climate justice,” said Niranjali Amerasinghe, executive director of ActionAid USA.

Trump Serving Big Oil

Trump’s leadership is now likely not only to continue but also to significantly expand its bullish fossil fuel exploration plans, further distancing the US from global climate goals and fueling the climate crisis. 

According to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Trump’s actions were a byproduct of “creepy polluters’ control” over his administration. 

Frances Colón, senior fellow for International Climate Policy at the Centre for American Progress, branded the move as a “corrupt bargain” that would result in abandoning climate leadership while treating American lives and taxpayer dollars as expendable in the service of Big Oil. “This week, as the Trump administration withdraws from the foundational framework for global climate cooperation, Trump is meeting with the oil executives of the same companies that poured nearly [USD] 100 million into his reelection campaign to discuss profiting from Venezuela’s oil,” the expert notes. “This is not a coincidence. This is policy by and for fossil fuel interests.”

As Trump Prioritises the Oil Industry’s Interests and Denies Science, Climate Disasters Grow More Severe in the US

While Trump has made his opinion about climate change clear on several occasions, branding it “the greatest con job ever”, “an expensive hoax” and “one of the greatest scams of all time”, the climate crisis has been intensifying and wreaking havoc all across the US. On Jan. 7, 2025, a year before Trump announced the US’ withdrawal from key climate treaties, record wildfires took the lives of over 440 people and burned more than 50,000 acres (202.3 square km), destroying nearly 16,000 homes and businesses. Scientists from the World Weather Attribution group found that climate change increased the likelihood of the disaster by 35%.

Gina McCarthy, the chair of the America is All In coalition and the first White House national climate advisor and 13th US EPA administrator, described Trump’s decision to quit the UNFCCC as “shortsighted, embarrassing and foolish,” noting that it would result in “throwing away decades of US climate change leadership and global collaboration”. McCarthy added, “This Administration is forfeiting our country’s ability to influence trillions of dollars in investments, policies, and decisions that would have advanced our economy and protected us from costly disasters wreaking havoc on our country.”

According to research by Climate Central, climate change has made extreme weather disasters over the past four decades in the US far more savage. For example, the cost of all disasters between 1985 and 1995 was USD 299 billion, compared with USD 1.4 trillion in losses over the past decade. 

In total, researchers estimate that 2025 ranks as the third-highest year after 2023 and 2024 for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, with 23 such events totalling USD 115 billion in damages. 

Furthermore, scientists found that weather extremes are now becoming way more frequent.

Globally, the loss of human lives, as well as damage to infrastructure and ecosystems, will continue escalating as the climate crisis worsens. Projections reveal that, even if current emissions-reduction pledges are implemented, the world would warm by 2.6°C by 2100, making many regions more hostile and leading to dangerous levels of heat. This would include adding 57 extra hot days per year compared to now, scientists warn. Climatologists also note that the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, which takes effect later this month, would add another 0.1°C to this range.

However, it doesn’t take waiting until the end of the century to understand the magnitude of the challenge. Scientists warn that the climate crisis is already claiming a life every single minute. And with the US’ continued push to derail global efforts to tame it, the challenge is becoming even more significant.

Climate Action Continues Amid the US-shaped Hole 

According to scientists, the US’ withdrawal from the global climate convention will only serve to further isolate it and diminish its standing in the world, jeopardising ties with some of its closest historical allies.

Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief and executive secretary of the UNFCCC, described the move as a “colossal own goal”. “While all other nations are stepping forward together, this latest step back from global leadership, climate cooperation and science can only harm the US economy, jobs and living standards, as wildfires, floods, mega-storms and droughts get rapidly worse,” he warned.

While Trump remains fixated on the past, the United States’ main rival on the world stage, China, has come to dominate the clean energy technologies of the future.

“China is leading the world in providing this affordable, reliable energy through its abundance of clean energy technologies. Meanwhile, the US will have trouble selling its fossil fuels when other countries are presented with cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable options for energy security,” says Kate Logan, director of China Climate Hub and Climate Diplomacy.

The US’ most powerful allies, including Australia, Britain and the European Union, are also advancing their ambitions to reduce the emissions from planet-heating greenhouse gases and ramp up renewable energy, unlocking trillions of dollars in economic opportunities.

“Fortunately, 198 minus one does not equal zero,” said former US Vice President Al Gore in a statement after Trump’s announcement. “While the US federal government sits on the sidelines, world leaders, local and state governments, and the private sector will continue to move forward with the clean energy transition and uphold the goals set forth in the Paris Agreement because it is in their best interest to do so.”

As the US steps back, the rest of the world will remain committed to climate change adaptation and mitigation. They will just have to do more.

“We heard loud and clear at COP 30 in Brazil that the world is moving forward with decisive action that will allow them to seize the economic opportunities of a low-carbon future, with or without the US,” said Max Frankel, executive director of SEEC Institute. “Today’s action only makes it more likely that we will be left behind.”