Donald Trump's administration started 2026 by removing the United States from several international climate organizations.
Pollution and steam rise from the stacks of the Miami Fort Power Station, which is situated along the Ohio River near Cincinnati, Ohio, on Jan. 12, 2026.climate research. In recent weeks, it has seemed like the administration is trying to put the nail in the coffin of America’s environmental protection efforts.
reportedly is now planning to end the practice of assessing the number of lives saved by regulations meant to curb airthe U.S. out of numerous international climate and environmental organizations, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Calculating the lives saved by regulating air pollution used to be a bipartisan issue. Marshall Burke, a professor of global environmental policy at Stanford University, says this has been done for a long time without a lot of opposition from lawmakers. “For decades, the EPA and other agencies in the U.S. government have done careful cost-benefit analyses to understand the impact of regulations on the U.S. economy and on individuals in the U.S.,” Burke says. “It’s been pretty bipartisan. … This push for a cost-benefit analysis was largely a Republican push early on, decades ago. … Basically what the administration is saying now is we’re just going to ignore the benefits.” Getting rid of this analysis will make it easier to do away with regulations that are saving human lives — which will benefit the companies polluting the air — pertaining to coal-burning power plants, oil refineries, and other parts of the fossil fuel industry. The Biden administration had worked to increase these protections, estimating that reducing the amount of fine particulate matter that could be emitted would prevent 4,500 premature deaths and nearly 300,000 lost work hours in 2023,. The Trump administration is no longer going to factor health risks into its cost-benefit analyses, instead only estimating the costs to businesses who enact regulations. “E.P.A., like the agency always has, is still considering the impacts that and ozone emissions have on human health,” an EPA spokesperson said in a statement to theMichael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University, says the move is an attempt to “rip the heart out of the government’s ability to regulate.” Roughly 135,000 Americans Oppenheimer isn’t surprised that the administration is withdrawing from international efforts to combat the climate crisis, on top of removing health risks from its cost-benefit analyses of pollution regulations, noting that it’s been clear since Trump retook office that the U.S. doesn’t have any interest in leading on the issue. “I think it is absolutely important, just from a leadership perspective,” Burke adds of America cooperating with other nations on climate. “That’s a problem for the climate, but it’s also likely a problem for us economically.” The list of international organizations the U.S. is pulling out of as of this month goes beyond climate organizations, but several of them are focused specifically on the climate and the environment. They include the 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the IPCC, the International Renewable Energy Agency, the International Solar Alliance, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and other climate or climate-adjacent organizations or agreements. The White House says participation in these cooperatives are “contrary to the interests of the United States.”Chemtrails Aren’t Real. So Why Are Politicians Passing Laws About Them?Trump Is Kneecapping Some of the Boldest Plans to Fight Climate Change. Oppenheimer says China will become even more influential when it comes to setting the path forward, and it will continue to dominate the clean energy space internationally. “China is making a lot of money developing and selling internationally the technologies that reduce greenhouse gasses,” Oppenheimer says. “They are the world’s leading producer of solar photovoltaic modules. They are the leading producer of wind turbines. They are the leading producer of electric vehicles.” Oppenheimer adds that if China is leading climate efforts on the world stage, there will be less transparency in those efforts than if the U.S. was leading them. As Burke puts it, America’s abdication “gives up” an opportunity to set the terms of the energy transition. He notes that there are local and state governments within the U.S. stepping up on clean energy, but “the federal government is stepping back from international participation.” This means a worse climate future, unnecessary deaths, and a less competitive American economy. It’s “crazy” for the U.S. to turn its back on the progress it has made on these fronts in recent years, Burke says.'Multi-Layered Bullshit': Trump's Push for Greenland Makes No Sense “We’re on the road to becoming the last petro state,” Oppenheimer adds. “All of this is a picture of a country that not just isn’t interested in fighting climate change but wants to cause more climate change. There’s no rational excuse for it.” While the U.S. stays focused on the energy of the past, the rest of the world will continue to make progress focusing on the energy of the future. All that remains to be seen is if the U.S. will be able to catch up with the world if and when it realizes how much harm it has done to itself and the planet, and for no good reason. 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