Trump orders US withdrawal from 66 UN-linked global organisations

The Trump administration will withdraw from dozens of international organisations, including the UN's population agency and the UN treaty that establishes international climate negotiations, as the US further retreats from global cooperation.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday (January 7) signed an executive order suspending US support for 66 organisations, agencies and commissions following his instructions for his administration to review participation in and funding for all international organisations, including those affiliated with the United Nations, according to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a presidential decision that had not yet been publicly announced.

Targets climate, labour bodies

Most of the targets are UN-related agencies, commissions and advisory panels that focus on climate, labour and other issues that the Trump administration has categorized as catering to diversity and “woke” initiatives.

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“The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation's sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity,” the State Department said in a statement.

Trump's decision to withdraw from organisations that foster cooperation among nations to address global challenges comes as his administration has launched military efforts or issued threats that have rattled allies and adversaries alike, including capturing autocratic Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and indicating an intention to take over Greenland.

Selective multilateral engagement

This is the latest US withdrawal from global agencies. The administration previously suspended support from agencies like the World Health Organisation, the UN for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA, the UN Human Rights Council and the UN cultural agency UNESCO as it has taken a larger, a-la-carte approach to paying its dues to the world body, picking which operations and agencies they believe align with Trump's agenda and those which no longer serve US interests.

It has marked a major shift from how previous administrations -- both Republican and Democratic -- have dealt with the UN, and it has forced the world body, already undergoing its own internal reckoning, to respond with a series of staffing and programme cuts.

Many independent nongovernmental agencies -- some that work with the United Nations -- have cited many project closures because of the US administration's decision last year to slash foreign assistance through the US Agency for International Development, or USAID.

Despite the massive shift, the US officials, including Trump himself, say they have seen the potential of the UN and want to instead focus taxpayer money to expand American influence in many of the standard-setting UN initiatives where there is competition with China, like the International Telecommunications Union, the International Maritime Organization and the International Labor Organization.

Climate action faces setback

The withdrawal from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, is the latest effort by Trump and his allies to distance the US from international organisations focused on climate and addressing climate change.

UNFCC, the 1992 agreement between 198 countries to financially support climate change activities in developing countries, is the underlying treaty for the landmark Paris climate agreement. Trump -- who calls climate change a hoax -- withdrew from that agreement soon after reclaiming the White House.

Mainstream scientists say climate change is behind increasing instances of deadly and costly extreme weather, including flooding, droughts, wildfires, intense rainfall events and dangerous heat.

The US withdrawal could hinder global efforts to curb greenhouse gases because it “gives other nations the excuse to delay their own actions and commitments,” said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who chairs the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that tracks countries' carbon dioxide emissions.

Withdrawal expands beyond climate

It also will be difficult to achieve meaningful progress on climate change without cooperation from the US, one of the world's largest emitters and economies, experts said.

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The UN's population agency, which provides sexual and reproductive health across the world, has long been a lightning rod for Republican opposition and Trump himself cut funding for the agency during his first term in office. He and other GOP officials have accused the agency of participating in “coercive abortion practices” in countries like China.

When President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he restored funding for the agency. A State Department review conducted the following year found no evidence to support these claims.

Other organisations and agencies that the US will quit include the Carbon Free Energy Compact, the United Nations University, the International Cotton Advisory Committee, the International Tropical Timber Organization, the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the Pan-American Institute for Geography and History, the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies and the International Lead and Zinc Study Group.

(With agency inputs)