{"id":686510,"date":"2026-01-10T10:14:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T10:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/686510\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T10:14:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T10:14:23","slug":"climate-cooperation-will-suffer-as-the-u-s-disengages-from-international-commitments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/686510\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Cooperation Will Suffer as the U.S. Disengages From International Commitments"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. government\u2019s announcement that it will seek to withdraw from more than 60 international organizations<\/a>, many linked to the United Nations, will inflict lasting geopolitical self-harm and suggests the current administration is deeply insecure in the face of a rapidly changing world, political scientists said this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new directive from the White House seems to undermine America\u2019s own influence in global systems, said Federica Genovese<\/a>, a political scientist at the University of Oxford.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing a superpower confronted with the fact that its position may be threatened, and how superpowers react when they need to change,\u201d she said. More fundamentally, she added, \u201cthe return of Trump is a symptom of Americans themselves being unsure how they want to position themselves in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Genovese said the global consequences of U.S. policy shifts are already taking shape. As the U.S. disengages, for example by pulling out of the Paris Agreement, climate cooperation is mutating.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are moving into a much more fragmented world,\u201d she said, where cooperation becomes \u201cmore cynical, more hierarchical and more forceful,\u201d increasingly driven by power and self-interest rather than shared responsibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In that world, she said, the European Union is becoming an institutional anchor for climate governance and data sharing, not because it is perfect, but because it continues to treat scientific coordination and rule-based cooperation as public goods, she added.<\/p>\n

In a statement reacting to the new withdrawal decree, German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider said the U.S. exit from the United Nations climate framework was expected, but disappointing nonetheless.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the climate conference at the end of last year it became apparent the U.S. is alone with its stance on climate change,\u201d he said. \u201cA number of new alliances were forged in Bel\u00e9m to address international carbon markets, accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels and, most notably, combat fake news on climate issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some European leaders increasingly see the United States as a threat to global stability. In separate statements this week, French President Emmanuel Macron and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier both warned that U.S. actions and statements are hastening the disintegration of post-WWII rule-based governance.<\/p>\n

As reported by The Guardian<\/a>, Macron said multilateral institutions are becoming less effective in a world with great powers tempted to try dividing up the world.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Berlin Wednesday, Steinmeier said global democracy is at risk, and that smaller states and entire regions could be \u201ctreated as the property of a few great powers.\u201d<\/p>\n

No Simple Answers to Complex Issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

By leaving the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the U.S. forfeits having seats on any of the organization\u2019s climate finance boards, losing any influence over how U.S. dollars already in the fund will be spent, which appears to be a \u201cdereliction of the administration\u2019s duty to American taxpayers,\u201d according to a statement from Joe Thwaites, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council\u2019s international climate finance program.<\/p>\n

The Jan. 7 memorandum<\/a> from the White House instructs federal departments and agencies to take \u201cimmediate steps\u201d to cease funding for, and participation in, organizations ranging from child-abuse prevention programs, online freedom coalitions and public-health working groups, to cyber-crime forums, human-rights commissions and cultural heritage bodies.<\/p>\n

The list reads like it was compiled by grabbing documents from a filing cabinet that tumbled down a flight of stairs. But the loud clatter is not just accidental noise, especially in the context of other global events, including an apparent U.S. takeover of Venezuela\u2019s fossil resources, said Marc Hudson<\/a>, a visiting science policy research fellow at the University of Sussex who traces the history of climate policy on the All Our Yesterdays<\/a> website.<\/p>\n

The din distracts from a systematic effort to dismantle the administrative and scientific scaffolding of the post-WWII international order that has enabled at least some level of international cooperation and accountability on climate action and a wide range of other issues, Hudson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you\u2019re seeing here is a refusal to engage with the irreducible complexity of the world,\u201d he said. The people driving the efforts to further isolate the United States see many of the institutions on the list as \u201cwoke job-creation programs for liberal, hippie scum who can\u2019t get a job in the real world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One of the consequences, he added, is \u201cthat a whole bunch of clever people lose their jobs and their influence within the state, and the state becomes much more blind to various threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story is funded by readers like you.<\/p>\n

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The White House memo says a Department of State review identified organizations whose work runs counter to U.S. interests. The White House did not respond to questions about the memorandum.<\/p>\n

Some legal experts said it could take months or years to determine whether a series of executive actions can legally sever all these international ties<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The U.S. is connected to those international groups through various legal mechanisms, but the new memo seeks to nullify decades of layered international law with a single action, like a new homeowners\u2019 association president trying to dissolve the group by posting a note on the front door. The intent is clear, but the authority is not.<\/p>\n

More \u201cFlooding the Zone\u201d Tactics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Political analysts say the cascade of confusion isn\u2019t purely chaotic. There\u2019s a documented pattern of using information overload to overwhelm institutions and public attention. Torrents of proclamations, directives and policies that sometimes contradict each other are issued so rapidly that the media, civil society and legal systems can\u2019t keep up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This \u201cflooding the zone\u201d strategy, identified by political communications researchers, exploits the limited attention span of modern societies. Too much information makes it hard to process, verify or contest substantive changes before they take hold.<\/p>\n

Analyses<\/a> of authoritarian playbooks show that this is a deliberate governance tactic designed to exhaust opponents and weaken oversight by increasing the speed and volume of rulings, policies and decrees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On top of the exhaustion and loss of institutional knowledge, confusing decrees generate uncertainty, all of which make it harder for societies to respond coherently to long-term threats like climate change, said Rachel Santarsiero, a National Security Archive researcher who studies the history of international climate governance.<\/p>\n

With public attention constantly shifting to the new crisis of the day, long-term climate and environmental governance fade into the background, she added.<\/p>\n

From Genovese\u2019s perspective, the U.S. might have to confront the internal threat of rising authoritarianism before it degenerates into something even worse, as a prerequisite to reengaging with the world on climate action and other issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The latest steps to isolate the U.S. are part of an authoritarian far-right agenda that has been part of the American political spectrum for a \u201cvery, very long time,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat is new is that people are finally being forced to talk about fascism in America and about whether they know their own history, or want to know their past for what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019s heard friends and colleagues in the U.S. argue that this is the moment to focus on restoring democracy in public institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, climate change cannot wait, but you are not going to do anything about climate change if you have a petro-autocracy,\u201d she said, referring to a national government that aligns its policies with fossil fuel interests. \u201cThere is a sequence to this,\u201d she added. \u201cDemocracy has to come first.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAbout This Story<\/p>\n

Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n

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Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n

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Thank you,<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBob Berwyn\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tReporter, Austria<\/p>\n

Bob Berwyn is an Austria-based reporter who has covered climate science and international climate policy for more than a decade. Previously, he reported on the environment, endangered species and public lands for several Colorado newspapers, and also worked as editor and assistant editor at community newspapers in the Colorado Rockies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. government\u2019s announcement that it will seek to withdraw from more than 60 international organizations, many linked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[207599,2311,28560,32,34,1699,30557,207600,44420,46,1166,8406,207601,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-686510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-2015-paris-agreement","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-climate-policy","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-emmanuel-macron","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-frank-walter-steinmeier","15":"tag-paris-accord","16":"tag-paris-agreement","17":"tag-policy","18":"tag-trump-administration","19":"tag-united-nations","20":"tag-united-nations-framework-convention-on-climate-change","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115870280115676531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}