Donald Trump Pulls Out of Global Climate Treaty, Forfeiting Trillions of Dollars of Investment and Leaving Communities Vulnerable
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Trump’s decision will hand our energy future to China and take clean energy options off the table as utility bills skyrocket for Americans
Washington, DC – Donald Trump is withdrawing the United States from a global climate treaty that fosters international cooperation in the fight against climate change. The US will now be the only country in the world that isn’t a part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Trump is forfeiting our global leadership and further ceding the future of clean energy manufacturing to China. This move will continue to hamstring our ability to invest in clean energy, which would lower costs and create jobs, and make climate disasters even more costly and deadly.
Climate Power Senior Advisor Alex Witt issued the following statement: “With this decision, Donald Trump is completely forfeiting global leadership. As the only country in the world no longer a part of the UNFCCC, Americans will no longer have a say in directing critical investments to lower costs and protect communities from climate disasters. Since Trump took office, utility costs have gone up 13% and more than 165,000 clean energy manufacturing jobs have been lost or stalled. Instead of continuing to invest in cheaper, cleaner renewable energy that can be made here at home, Trump is doubling down on expensive foreign oil in Venezuela to please his billionaire oil donors. Trump will always put his donors and his petty vendetta against climate action ahead of the well being of Americans.”
Donald Trump doesn’t care about lowering costs for American families:
- Americans have seen their electricity prices increase by 13% under Trump, all while he’s gutted the addition of critical clean energy supply that would actually lower costs and can be brought online faster than fossil fuels.
- According to a June 2025 report, unsubsidized utility-scale solar and onshore wind remain the most cost-effective forms of new-build energy generation.
- Trump’s plan to “run” Venezuela and seize their oil won’t lower prices—and instability in the region could instead lead to a spike in oil prices.
- The United States is already the world’s largest producer of oil, and Venezuela’s declining oil infrastructure will take years to rebuild before production can increase significantly.
- Climate change has caused extreme weather events to increase in frequency and intensity. According to the Fifth National Climate Assessment, extreme weather events have cost the United States at least $150 billion annually. As extreme weather becomes more costly and devastating, Trump’s cuts are leaving local communities without the resources they need to recover.
- In the first six months of 2025, extreme weather disasters caused more than $100 billion in damage in the United States – the most expensive start to any year on record.
- Since 2021, at least six million policyholders in the U.S. have seen rate hikes on their property insurance policies, and insurers have canceled at least 1.4 million policies. Insurers attributed more than one in four rate hikes, cancellations, and halts on new business to extreme weather or climate disasters.