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Mohamed Adow, Founder and Director, Power Shift Africa, regrets as “yet another ignorant and reckless act from Donald Trump” the United States’ withdrawal from the UNFCCC, the IPCC, and other global climate, trade, and scientific bodies
The US withdrawal from the UNFCCC and IPCC is yet another ignorant and reckless act from Donald Trump.
While the US retains the right to debate and determine its own policy priorities, retreating from international climate agreements when the impacts of the climate crisis are biting harder than ever, undermines not just global solidarity, but also effective policymaking everywhere, including in Washington. Political posturing cannot alter the underlying physics of greenhouse gas accumulation, and no amount of rhetoric can extinguish wildfires, hold back floods or stop a hurricane.
Let’s be clear: this withdrawal will also harm the American people themselves. The United States faces escalating climate impacts, from catastrophic wildfires and storms to agricultural disruption and infrastructure damage. By abandoning international climate frameworks, America isolates itself from global solutions and risks being left behind as the rest of the world accelerates toward a clean energy economy that will define 21st century prosperity.
This moment, while regrettable, should serve as a clarion call for renewed unity and resolve. The climate movement is bigger than any one nation. The rest of the world, as well as cities, states and organisations within the US, must now step up with even greater determination.
African nations and the Global South will continue pushing for climate justice, demanding that wealthy polluters honour their historical responsibilities, and building the clean energy future our people deserve. We will move forward with or without American leadership, but we know that ordinary Americans, like people everywhere, deserve better than a government that turns its back on both science and their future security.
