WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration will withdraw from dozens of international organizations, including the U.N. population agency and the U.N. treaty that establishes international climate negotiations. US retreat away from global cooperation.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order suspending US support for 66 organizations, agencies and commissions after his administration reviewed the participation and funding of all international organizations, including those affiliated with the United Nations, according to a White House report.
Many of the targets are UN-related agencies, commissions and advisory panels that focus on climate, labor, migration and other issues that the Trump administration has categorized as catering to diversity and “awakening” initiatives. Other non-UN organizations on the list include the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum.
“The Trump administration has found these institutions redundant, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, mismanaged, vested in the interests of actors who advance their own agendas at odds with ours, or a threat to the sovereignty, liberties and general prosperity of our country,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
Trump’s decision to withdraw from organizations that promote cooperation among nations to solve global problems comes as his administration has launched military efforts or issued threats that have rattled allies and adversaries alike, including the capture of autocratic Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and indicating an intent on taking over Greenland.
The US is building on the model of departing global agencies
The administration previously suspended support for agencies such as World Health Organizationthe United Nations agency for Palestine refugees known as UNRWA, the United Nations Human Rights Council and UN cultural agency UNESCO. It required a larger, à la carte access pay dues to the world body, selection of operations and agencies believes to be in line with Trump’s agenda and those that are no longer serves US interests.
“I think what we’re seeing is a crystallization of the US approach to multilateralism, which is ‘my way or the highway,'” said Daniel Forti, head of UN affairs at the International Crisis Group. “It’s a very clear vision to want international cooperation on Washington’s terms.”
It marked a major shift from how previous administrations — both Republican and Democratic — had dealt with the United Nations, forcing a world body that had already gone through its own internal settlementanswer with a a series of personnel and program cuts.
Many independent non-governmental agencies – some that work with the United Nations – have many cited project closures because of the US administration’s decision last year to cut foreign aid through the US Agency for International Development, or USAID.
Despite the massive shift, Trump administration officials say they see the potential of the UN and want it instead focus taxpayer money on expanding American influence in many UN standardization initiatives where there is competition with China, such as the International Telecommunication Union, the International Maritime Organization and the International Labor Organization.
The last US global organizations are leaving
Withdrawal from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCCis the latest effort by Trump and his allies to distance the US from international organizations focused on climate and climate change solutions.
The UNFCCC, a 1992 agreement between 198 countries to financially support climate change activities in developing countries, is the foundational treaty for the landmark Paris Climate Agreement. Trump, who calls climate change a hoax, withdrew from the deal soon after regaining the White House.
Gina McCarthy, a former White House climate adviser, said being the only country in the world not part of the treaty was a “short-sighted, embarrassing and foolish decision.”
“This administration is losing our country’s ability to influence trillions of dollars in investments, policies and decisions that would advance our economy and protect us from the costly disasters that devastate our country,” McCarthy, who co-chairs America Is All In, a coalition of U.S. states and cities on climate, said in a statement.
Mainstream scientists claim Climate change is behind rising cases from deadly and costly extreme weather, including floods, droughts, forest fires, intense rain events and dangerously hot.
A U.S. withdrawal could hinder global efforts to curb greenhouse gases because it “gives other nations an excuse to delay their own actions and commitments,” said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who chairs the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that tracks countries’ carbon dioxide emissions.
Experts say it will also be difficult to make meaningful progress on climate change without working with the US, one of the world’s biggest emitters and economies.
The UN Population Fund, the agency that provides sexual and reproductive health around the world, has long been a lightning rod for Republican opposition, and Trump cut funding to it during his first term. He and other GOP officials have accused the agency of being involved in “forced abortion practices” in countries like China.
When President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he restored funding for the agency. A State Department review conducted the following year found no evidence to support the GOP’s claims.
Other organizations and agencies to leave the US include the Carbon Free Energy Compact, United Nations University, International Cotton Advisory Committee, International Tropical Timber Organization, Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, Pan American Institute of Geography and History, International Federation of Arts Councils and Cultural Agencies, and the International Study Group on Lead and Zinc.
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