US initiates withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

On the evening of 20 January 2025 President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 14162, “Putting America First In International Environmental Agreements,” initiating the second US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.¹ Section 3(a) directs the US Ambassador to the United Nations to “immediately submit formal written notification of the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement”; § 3(b) directs notification of withdrawal from “any agreement, pact, accord, or similar commitment made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change”; § 3(c) directs cessation of any US financial commitments under the UNFCCC; and § 3(e) revokes the US International Climate Finance Plan of September 2021.¹ Companion same-day orders include Executive Order 14155 (directing US withdrawal from the World Health Organization), Executive Order 14156 (“Declaring a National Energy Emergency”), and Executive Order 14163 (suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program under INA § 207, 8 U.S.C. § 1157).²³⁴ Under Article 28(2) of the Paris Agreement, withdrawal takes effect one year from the date the Depositary — the Secretary-General of the United Nations — receives the written notification of withdrawal, or on such later date as the notification may specify; Article 28(1) permits withdrawal “at any time after three years from the date on which this Agreement has entered into force for a Party.”⁵

1. US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement does not, by itself, alter the domestic regulatory framework for greenhouse-gas emissions, which arises from the Clean Air Act under Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007).⁶ The order ends US obligations under the Paris Agreement’s nationally-determined-contribution and global-stocktake architecture, effective one year after the Depositary receives notification.⁵

2. The order’s § 3(c) and § 3(e) direct cessation of UNFCCC financial commitments and revoke the US International Climate Finance Plan; appropriations themselves are made by Congress and are not cancelled by the order.¹

3. The Paris Agreement was joined by the United States as a sole-executive agreement, not as an Article II treaty under Senate advice and consent (Art. II § 2 cl. 2); withdrawal therefore does not require Senate participation. Its durability across administrations turns on the agreement’s legal form and on any implementing legislation rather than on a blanket “binds only the signing administration” rule.