US To World: We Don’t Need No Stinking UNFCCC!

---

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

---

The hits keep on coming in America, as the so-called US government declares war on anyone and anything that dares question its power. Got a “sh*thole” country you don’t like? Send a goon squad to arrest its leader (while murdering 60 innocent people in the process), then prance around and celebrate like a demented loon while you make plans to plunder its natural resources. Murder innocent people on public streets, then scream at the top of your lungs about how it was their fault and they got what they deserved.

When you are done, blithely announce that the US is the only country in the world that no longer considers itself bound by the United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change, the landmark international agreement created in 1992 and designed to take one or two baby steps toward addressing the growing global climate emergency. In the view of this administration, it is a moral sin to leave one molecule of fossil fuel in the ground unburned and everything possible must be done to make sure that does not happen.

Droughts, wildfires, extreme storms, and rising seas are all hoaxes dreamed up by George Soros and the brain-addled monsters who dare call themselves liberals, progressives, or — even worse — Democrats!

34 Years Of UNFCCC

What is UNFCCC? According to Wikipedia, “The convention’s main objective is the ‘stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic [i.e., human-caused] interference with the climate system.’ The treaty calls for continuing scientific research into the climate. This research supports meetings and negotiations to lead to agreements.

“The aim is to allow ecosystems to adapt to climate change. At the same time it aims to ensure there are no threats to food production from climate change or measures to address it. And it aims to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner. The UNFCCC’s work currently focuses on implementing the Paris Agreement.”

According to POLITICO, the braying jackass masquerading as the president of the United States just announced he is withdrawing the country from the UNFCCC — a process that takes a year to complete. That will leave the US as the only country on Earth that is not a participant.

The White House — what’s left of it — also announced on January 7, 2025, that the US would leave the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a host of other important international organizations tied to climate research and clean energy.

Rubio Prostitutes Himself

“Many of these bodies promote radical climate policies, global governance, and ideological programs that conflict with U.S. sovereignty and economic strength,” according to a White House fact sheet. The alleged Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said the 66 organizations the US is leaving seek to “constrain American sovereignty,” referring to gender equity campaigns and “climate orthodoxy.”

“As this list begins to demonstrate, what started as a pragmatic framework of international organizations for peace and cooperation has morphed into a sprawling architecture of global governance, often dominated by progressive ideology and detached from national interests,” he said, according to a report by the New York Times.

“President Trump is clear: It is no longer acceptable to be sending these institutions the blood, sweat, and treasure of the American people, with little to nothing to show for it,” Rubio said in a statement. “The days of billions of dollars in taxpayer money flowing to foreign interests at the expense of our people are over.”

The plan to leave the UNFCCC — which is the basis for the annual world climate conferences — stems from Trump’s order last February requiring Rubio to identify treaties and international organizations that “are contrary to the interests of the United States” and recommend withdrawing from them. The result is a government that is now a participant in a carefully crafted cabal that amounts to a circular firing squad.

Praise For UNFCCC Withdrawal

Not everyone is concerned by these announcements. George David Banks, who served as Trump’s international climate adviser during his first administration, told POLITICO, “The framework convention is a joke,” and that leaving it could force the international community to reexamine its process for cooperating on climate change.

He pointed to the UNFCCC’s tendency to isolate climate issues from energy or economic officials who are more central to policy levers. Nevertheless, Banks has said he would like to see the US remain involved in international climate discussions if only to make sure global climate policy doesn’t “undermine the economic value of U.S. fossil fuels” — because nothing must be allowed to undermine the profits of Big Oil, even if it leads to the death of hundreds of millions of people!

Legal experts suggest that withdrawing could complicate any future president’s efforts to rejoin the treaty at a later date. Although it was ratified unanimously by the Senate in 1992, some question whether that consent continues indefinitely.

Others argue that if a president can unilaterally leave a treaty, a future president could rejoin it without a new vote. “Otherwise, you are just handing this huge amount of power to a president to forever cancel the act of the Senate,” Jean Galbraith, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has written about treaties, told POLITICO’s E&E News last year.

Environmentalists Are Dismayed

Sue Biniaz, a former deputy climate envoy under John Kerry, said: “The U.S. should be the global leader on the climate issue for economic, environmental, and geopolitical reasons, not surrendering leadership to others.”

“This is a shortsighted, embarrassing, and foolish decision,” said Gina McCarthy, who served as EPA administrator under President Obama. “As the only country in the world not a part of the UNFCCC treaty, the Trump administration is throwing away decades of US climate change leadership and global collaboration.”

“We wouldn’t have been where we were with the original framework convention and we wouldn’t be where we are with the landmark Paris Agreement without very active U.S. leadership,” said Todd Stern, who served as the US climate envoy when the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015.

Former climate officials said Trump’s moves on Wednesday weren’t surprising, given his statements denigrating climate science. But they were no less scathing in their criticism. “Of all the wreckage Donald Trump is leaving in his wake, this one could be amongst the most consequential and damaging, particularly for future generations,” said John Podesta, who coordinated climate policy under Obama and Biden.

Others bemoaned the long term consequences of these moves by the administration. “To be the first major economy to abandon this effort would set American families and businesses back in the global energy transition — leaving them to breathe dirtier air, face worse health outcomes, pay higher energy bills, and miss out on the economic gains that come with leading the shift to a clean energy future,” said Amanda Leland, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund.

David Widawsky, U.S. director of the World Resources Institute, called withdrawing from the UNFCCC “a strategic blunder that gives away American advantage for nothing in return.”

Delta Merner of the Union of Concerned Scientists added, “Walking away doesn’t make the science disappear, it only leaves people across the United States, policymakers, and businesses flying in the dark at the very moment when credible climate information is most urgently needed.”

Undermining Climate Policy

Since taking office for a second time a year ago, the putative president has undermined US and international climate efforts by shutting offices throughout the federal government and threatening to unleash tariffs on countries that support carbon taxes on shipping emissions. He has also spearheaded a wide-ranging campaign to erase regulations governing climate pollution from power plants and vehicles, and recruited a bunch of climate contrarians to write a report that undermined traditional climate science.

The US government is now flailing in all directions at once to discredit and denigrate any policies that promote decency and climate justice for all American citizens, not just those who have their own cryptocurrency platforms, members of Congress who rake in fat profits based on insider trading tips, tech bros who think letting children use AI to undress women and girls is cool, and fossil fuel executives who grow wealthy as a result of outrageously generous compensation plans.

A Castrated Congress

Congress, of course, should be doing everything in its power to defang this administration, but the MAGA crowd is inordinately proud of the fact that they have been neutered in public by a rampaging tyrant and his insatiable need for power. As Abraham Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” This president has shown he is devoid of any shred of character.

Having given the finger to every other nation on Earth, the US now sits in splendid isolation as the biggest rogue nation in history. Not even Hollywood could imagine the utter lunacy of this administration and its fierce embrace of an alternate reality that reflects the deranged thinking of a power crazed madman.