Donald Trump will pull the US, the world’s second-largest climate polluter, out of the most important global treaty for tackling climate change for the second time.
The White House announced the move to withdraw from the Paris Agreement shortly after Mr Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
The decision would place the United States alongside Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries in the world outside the landmark global 2015 pact to limit global warming.
Mr Trump also withdrew the US from the Paris deal during his first term, but it was reversed by Joe Biden on his first day in office.
Last month, the UK’s climate envoy warned Paris was “more fragile than ever” due to countries disagreeing over whether the agreement goes too far – or not far enough.
The withdrawal will form part of a suite of measures designed to exploit every last drop of oil and gas from US soil – something Mr Biden somewhat tempered, though he still oversaw record oil production.
Mr Trump says the moves will lower prices and inflation.
A spokesperson for his team confirmed he is also signing an executive order declaring a national energy emergency aimed at “unleashing affordable and reliable American energy”.
The new president is also expected to scrap other environmental regulations and cut off green technology subsidies that formed part of Mr Biden’s landmark green legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
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Dr Rachel Cleetus from the Union of Concerned Scientists called the withdrawal from Paris a “travesty” and “abdication of responsibility”.
“Such a move is in clear defiance of scientific realities and shows an administration cruelly indifferent to the harsh climate change impacts that people in the United States and around the world are experiencing,” she said.
But America has long been a climate laggard, whether under Mr Trump or other presidents.
Members of the climate movement put a brave face on, saying the global climate fight continues regardless.
Laurence Tubiana, who spearheaded the Paris Agreement and now runs the European Climate Foundation, called the withdrawal “unfortunate”.
“But multilateral climate action has proven resilient, and is stronger than any single country’s politics and policies.”
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The COP29 climate conference in November was the first test of global climate action after it had been rocked by Mr Trump’s election, and managed to scrape through.
The context today is also “very different” to the last time President Trump withdrew America from the agreement in 2017, added Ms Tubiana.
Momentum behind the global switch to clean energy is gathering pace, and the market for clean technologies is expected to triple by 2035, according to the International Energy Agency.
The US Climate Alliance, a bi-partisan alliance of more than 20 state governors, vowed to carry on pursuing climate goals set by the outgoing Mr Biden.
“We will continue America’s work to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and slash climate pollution,” said the governors of New York and New Mexico, Kathy Hochul and Michelle Lujan Grisham.
