The Trump administration has withdrawn the US from a global agreement under which developed nations most responsible for the climate crisis pledged to partly compensate developing countries for irreversible harms caused by global heating.
The loss and damage fund was agreed at the Cop28 UN climate summit in Dubai – a hard-won victory after years of diplomatic and grassroots advocacy by developing nations that bear the brunt of the climate crisis despite having contributed least to greenhouse gas emissions. The fund signalled a commitment by developed, polluting countries to provide financial support for some of the irreversible economic and noneconomic losses from sea level rise, desertification, drought and floods already happening.
The US has a long record of delay tactics and obstructionism, and had so far pledged only $17.5m (£13.5m) to the loss and damage fund, which became operational on 1 January this year. Now the US, the biggest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, will no longer participate in the initiative.
“On behalf of the United States Department of the Treasury, I write to inform you that the United States is withdrawing from the board for the fund for responding to loss and damage, effective immediately,” said Rebecca Lawlor, the deputy director at the US Office of Climate and Environment, in a letter to the fund.
The decision to abandon the loss and damage fund was condemned by climate advocates from the global north and south.
“The US decision to step away from this commitment at such a crucial moment sends the wrong message to the global community and to those in dire need of assistance,” said Mohamed Adow, a climate policy analyst and director of the thinktank Power Shift Africa. “We urge the United States to reconsider its position in the interest of the planet and future generations … this regrettable decision risks undermining collective progress and erodes the trust necessary for effective international cooperation.”
“Let’s be clear – the US has never been a climate champion. Yet the Trump administration’s anti-climate action agenda – including its withdrawal from the loss and damage fund board – is a wrecking ball made of dynamite. It’s dangerous, it’s malicious and it will destroy lives,” said Rachel Rose Jackson, research director at Corporate Accountability.
“We cannot allow the Trump administration, and the greedy corporations pulling the strings, to get away with destroying the planet. It’s time for the United States to pay up its climate debt and do its fair share of climate action.”
The African Group of Negotiators, a coalition of African nations participating in UN climate negotiations, also condemned the move. “This decision, made by the nation with the largest historical responsibility for climate change, jeopardises vital support for vulnerable countries facing irreversible climate impacts,” said its chair, Ali Mohamed.
The withdrawal from the loss and damage fund comes after Trump again pulled out from the 2015 Paris climate accords, claiming the international agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and preventing climate catastrophe ripped off the US.
“I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off,” he said signing the executive order on his first day in office. “The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity.”
China currently ranks as the top greenhouse gas emitter but is also the global leader in the manufacture and deployment of renewable energy. The US is the largest historical emitter and, while emissions have fallen alongside reductions in coal, it has become the world’s largest oil and gas producer by a huge margin in recent years.
The Trump administration’s anti-climate action policies come after record-breaking ocean and atmospheric temperatures caused climate chaos across the world including devastating wildfires in Los Angeles and deadly flooding across Florida and southern Appalachia. Meanwhile, Trump’s pledge to “drill, baby drill” – and his trade war and dismantling of federal agencies among other policies threaten to derail the burgeoning American renewables sector.
The loss and damage fund is work in progress. As of late January, 27 countries had pledged a combined total of $741m – the equivalent of about 0.2% of the irreversible losses developing countries are facing from global heating every year.
The US withdrawal from the fund appears to be another rejection of global diplomacy and the reality of the climate crisis for which it is disproportionately to blame.
“The decision by the Trump administration exemplifies a longstanding pattern of obstruction by the US government in securing necessary finance for addressing climate impacts, [and] undermines global efforts to deliver climate justice,” said Harjeet Singh, a climate activist and founding director of the Delhi-based Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.
“As the largest historical emitter, the United States bears a significant share of the blame for the climate adversities affecting vulnerable populations worldwide. We must hold them accountable and ensure they contribute their fair share towards global climate reparations.”
