The United States will also no longer participate in the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or the Green Climate Fund
SCHAUMBURG, IL (January 8, 2026) – President Donald Trump on Wednesday withdrew the United States from the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also announced that the United States is out of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for developing countries. The Trump administration also withdrew the U.S. from more than 60 other international organizations, including dozens of U.N.-linked bodies.
The Heartland Institute is a national free-market think tank that The Economist magazine called “the world’s most prominent think-tank promoting skepticism about man-made climate change.”
Heartland has organized 15 International Conferences on Climate Change and will host its 16th conference on April 8-9 in Washington, DC. Heartland also published the 3,000-page Climate Change Reconsidered series of volumes by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change.
The following statements may be used for attribution. For more information about this book distribution, or to interview the authors, please contact Executive Vice President and Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] or call/text 312-731-9364.
“President Trump displayed tremendous judgment and courage pulling America out of impoverishing and counterproductive globalist entities such as the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. These entities exist to impose leftist, top-down decisionmaking regarding important topics while bypassing common sense and national interests. America and the world itself will benefit from Trump’s decisive action.”
James Taylor
President
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“With one sweeping, deft move President Trump did more the reestablish U.S. sovereignty and economic and geopolitical liberty than any president in my lifetime. Trump’s withdrawal from the IPCC and the UNFCCC underlying it were long overdue if, honestly, unexpected.
“The UNFCCC was a misguided effort from its very beginning. From formulation as an idea to its inception and operation, it was established on the false premise that human fossil fuel use is causing a climate catastrophe. Not only does the data in the 33 years since the UNFCCC and IPCC were formed not show an anthropogenic decline in human well-being, fossil fuels have continued to play an essential role in human progress and the reduction in hunger, pre-mature death and poverty. And that’s just two treaties/agreements of more than 60 that Trump withdrew U.S. support for.
“Collectively, Trump’s action will save the U.S. money, advance U.S. interests, and defund corrupt foreign politicians and politically connected elites. The trillions of dollars the U.S. provided to the dozens of programs Trump pulled us out of rarely helped average people, rather the funding was siphoned away by U.N. bureaucrats and venal, power–hungry tinpot dictators and warlords, leaving the poor in developing countries impoverished. Trump’s action represents a huge leap toward Making America Sovereign Again, and thus Making America Great Again.”
H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D.
Director
Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“I welcome President Donald J. Trump’s memorandum directing federal agencies to take immediate steps to withdraw the United States from 66 international organizations (including dozens of U.N.-linked bodies), following a State Department review conducted under Executive Order 14199. Notably, the list includes both the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), marking a decisive break from the international climate-policy machinery that has too often substituted politics and “consensus management” for transparent, accountable science.
“For years, the UNFCCC/IPCC ecosystem has operated like a self-perpetuating global climate bureaucracy. It elevates a narrow, pre-approved narrative, then turns around and uses it to rationalize higher energy costs, heavier regulation, and permanent “emergency” governance—while treating skeptical inquiry as something to be sidelined rather than answered.
“This move is a long-overdue course correction and a blunt reminder that American taxpayers are not obligated to bankroll institutions that are increasingly unaccountable to voters and insulated from meaningful scrutiny. The Heartland Institute will continue to champion open scientific debate, transparent data, and sound energy policy that keeps energy reliable and affordable—without outsourcing America’s decisions to unelected international bodies.”
Anthony Watts
Senior Fellow for Environment and Climate
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
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