President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a presidential memorandum, telling the United States to pull out of 66 international organizations and related bodies. These included important U.N.-linked climate groups.
The order instructs executive departments to take “immediate steps” to leave 35 non-U.N. organizations and to cease participation in or funding for 31 U.N. entities “to the extent permitted by law,” according to the White House memorandum. It follows a State Department review required under a 2025 executive order cited in the memorandum.
Among the targets are the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the U.N. agency focused on gender equality and women’s empowerment (UN Women), and the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), along with other climate and environment bodies listed in the memo, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The move as a sovereignty and budget shift, said the White House. The U.S. is exiting entities it argues advance “globalist agendas” or operate inefficiently, according to The White House fact sheet
Democrats criticized the decision as a retreat that could weaken U.S. leverage abroad. “America is withdrawing from its role as a world leader,” SEEC leaders said in a statement, according to SEEC.
Several climate experts also warned about economic and diplomatic costs.
The World Resources Institute said that the U.S. departure from the UNFCCC a “strategic blunder,” saying it puts the U.S. behind other countries as they build the clean energy economy.
Manish Bapna, head of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the U.S. would be the first country to leave the UNFCCC, reported by Reuters.
International allies signaled concern. Wopke Hoekstra, the EU’s climate commissioner, stated that the U.S. leaving the UNFCCC was “unfortunate and regrettable.” The EU also expressed regret over the decision, reported by Reuters.
The Samoa-based Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme indicated that the United States is still a member of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme until the formal withdrawal procedure is finished. The impact would depend on how that process goes, according to Reuters.
The memorandum directs the secretary of state to issue implementation guidance and authorizes publication in the Federal Register, according to the White House memorandum.
