'Profoundly damaging': EU leaders condemn Trump's withdrawal from UN climate treaty

World leaders have condemned the Trump administration's decision to pull the US out of the United Nations global climate treaty and more than 60 other international environmental organisations.

In a statement announcing the move on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio framed the move in explicitly political terms, declaring that global climate institutions are no longer relevant to the country's interests.

“As this list begins to demonstrate, what started as a pragmatic framework of international organisations for peace and cooperation has morphed into a sprawling architecture of global governance, often dominated by progressive ideology and detached from national interests," he said.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established in 1992 and served as the legal foundation for the 2015 Paris Agreement, a voluntary pact among nations to tackle global warming. Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement in his first term, but his successor, Joe Biden, reentered it.

Washington skipped the COP30 climate summit in Brazil last year, following remarks from President Donald Trump calling climate change "the greatest con ever perpetrated on the world" and dubbing renewable energy a "joke".

While the latest radical move is only symbolic, the US's withdrawal from the UNFCCC and dozens of environmental organisations continues a trend in which the world's most powerful economy is moving to the sidelines of climate action. Experts differ as to how hard it would be for a future US president to rejoin the UN treaty.

Trump has also withdrawn the US from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN body instrumental in supporting the EU's climate policies, such as the European Green Deal, which sets goals for climate neutrality by 2050 and the 1.5°C Paris Agreement targets.

Meanwhile, China is consolidating its corporate climate reporting architecture, a sign that Beijing intends to assume a leadership role in climate action and fill the vacuum left by the US.

In December, the country's Ministry of Finance announced the launch of a new standard defining how companies should report climate-related risks and opportunities in a bid to prevent greenwashing and encourage green investment.

The European view

Condemnation of the Trump administration's move has come fast in the US and abroad, including in Europe, where political leaders responded by reiterating the importance of the global climate treaties and organisations as drivers of global climate cooperation to slash global temperatures.

The European Commission's Executive Vice President for a Clean, Just, and Competitive Transition, Teresa Ribera, didn't mince her words, saying the White House "doesn't care about the environment, health, or the suffering of people".

"Peace, justice, cooperation or prosperity are not among its priorities. Not even the great legacy of the United States to global governance. And they spell it out," she said.

European Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra, dubbed the US's withdrawal as "regrettable" and "unfortunate" and reiterated the bloc's support for international climate research.

"We will also continue to work on international climate cooperation. And at home, we will continue to pursue our agenda of climate action, competitiveness, and independence," said Hoekstra.

Lawmaker Catarina Vieira (The Netherlands/Greens) said President Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the UNFCCC was "reckless" and "profoundly damaging".

"As heatwaves, fires and floods intensify, turning away from science and cooperation is a political choice with real human and economic costs. The world will move forward. The US is choosing to stand aside," Vieira told Euronews.

However, lawmaker Roman Haider (Austria/Patriots for Europe) sided with Donald Trump's decision, arguing that international climate agreements "don't serve our interests in any way".

"Under Ursula von der Leyen, EU climate legislation has evolved into a dense and intrusive control instrument that interferes in every detail of citizens' and businesses' daily lives, making everything more expensive while improving nothing," Haider told Euronews.

The Austrian lawmaker said the EU's "climate fundamentalism" is isolating the bloc from global peers and jeopardising citizens and companies.

"Europe must now follow the American example without delay – because we are now obviously the only ones still subjecting ourselves to these shackles," Haider added.