President Trump signed an executive order on January 20, 2025, directing the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change. This is the second time Trump has pulled the US out of the agreement, after first doing so in 2017. The order cites concerns about the economic impact of the agreement and claims it unfairly burdens the US. The withdrawal will take effect one year after the order was signed, making the US one of only four countries not participating in the agreement.
In addition to the global impact of U.S. withdrawal, USAID programs related to mitigating the impact of climate change may likely be curtailed or significantly modified as a result of the EO directing the pause and review of foreign assistance.
Project 2025’s Chapter on the Agency for International Development, seen as the blueprint for the realignment of foreign assistance, states the following in its section on Climate Change:
“USAID should cease its war on fossil fuels in the developing world and support the responsible management of oil and gas reserves as the quickest way to end wrenching poverty and the need for open-ended foreign aid. The next conservative Administration should rescind all climate policies from its foreign aid programs (specifically USAID’s Climate Strategy 2022–20307 ); shut down the agency’s o”ces, programs, and directives designed to advance the Paris Climate Agreement; and narrowly limit funding to traditional climate mitigation are best deployed to strengthen the resilience of countries that are most vulnerable to climatic shifts. The agency should cease collaborating with and funding progressive foundations, corporations, international institutions, and NGOs that advocate on behalf of climate fanaticism.”
Note that the writer of the Agency for International Development is Max Primorac who may have a prominent position in State/USAID in overseeing foreign assistance.
Here are links to the EO entitled, Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements, and Project 2025’s Chapter entitled “Agency for International Development.”
