Damn the torpedoes! Trump ditches a crucial climate treaty as he moves to dismantle America's climate protections

[marmar]

Damn the torpedoes! Trump ditches a crucial climate treaty as he moves to dismantle America’s climate protections
Published: January 10, 2026 9:07am EST

Gary W. Yohe
Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, Wesleyan University


(The Conversation) On Jan. 7, 2026, President Donald Trump declared that he would officially pull the United States out of the world’s most important global treaty for combating climate change. He said it was because the treaty ran “contrary to the interests of the United States.”

His order didn’t say which U.S. interests he had in mind.

Americans had just seen a year of widespread flooding from extreme weather across the U.S. Deadly wildfires had burned thousands of homes in the nation’s second-largest metro area, and 2025 had been the second- or third-hottest year globally on record. Insurers are no longer willing to insure homes in many areas of the country because of the rising risks, and they are raising prices in many others.

....(snip)....

Trump’s order to now pull the U.S. out of that treaty adds to a growing list of moves by the admnistration to dismantle U.S. efforts to combat climate change, despite the risks. Many of those moves, and there have been dozens, have flown under the public radar.

....(snip)....

Two climate-related decisions did dominate a few news cycles in 2025. The Environmental Protection Agency announced its intention to rescind its 2009 Endangerment Finding, a legal determination that certain greenhouse gas emissions endanger the public health and welfare that became the foundation of federal climate laws. There are indications that the move to rescind the finding could be finalized soon – the EPA sent its final draft rule to the White House for review in early January 2026. And the Department of Energy released a misinformed climate assessment authored by five handpicked climate skeptics. ...............(more)

https://theconversation.com/damn-the-torpedoes-trump-ditches-a-crucial-climate-treaty-as-he-moves-to-dismantle-americas-climate-protections-273148

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Trump's move to pull US from key UN climate treaty may be illegal, experts say

The Trump administration’s long-anticipated decision this week to pull the US from the world’s most important climate treaty may have been illegal, some experts say.

“In my legal opinion, he does not have the authority,” Harold Hongju Koh, former head lawyer for the US state department, told the Guardian.
...
Because the country entered the UNFCCC with the consultation and approval of the Senate in 1992, “there is an open question” about whether or not the president can unilaterally exit the agreement, Michael Gerrard, a climate law expert at Columbia University, wrote in an email.
...
“President Obama took the position that since the Paris agreement did not impose binding legal obligations on the US, it was not a treaty that required Senate ratification,” he said. “In contrast, President George HW Bush submitted the UNFCCC to the Senate, which unanimously ratified it in 1992, and he then signed it.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/12/trump-un-climate-treaty-unfccc

Add it to the list of his illegal actions.