Statements by Al Gore and Phyllis Cuttino on U.S. Withdrawal from International Climate Organisations

On January 7 it was announced that the Trump administration decided to withdraw the US from 66 international organisations, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This is an unprecedented decision in the history of climate diplomacy which strengthens the anti-scientific approach of the administration and its support for the fossil fuel industry.

Below are statements on the decision made by the Founder of the Climate Reality Project, Al Gore, and its CEO, Phyllis Cuttino.

Al Gore, Founder of The Climate Reality Project:

For decades, the world’s scientists and governments have worked together to tackle the most significant challenge of our lifetimes: the climate crisis. The ongoing work of the IPCC, UNFCCC, and other global institutions remains essential to safeguarding humanity’s future. The Trump Administration’s decision to remove the United States from these vital organizations sends the wrong message to our allies abroad and fails to protect Americans from increasingly dangerous impacts of the climate crisis at home.

The Trump Administration has been turning its back on the climate crisis since day one, removing the United States from the Paris Agreement, dismantling America’s scientific infrastructure, curbing access to greenhouse gas emissions data, and ending essential investments in the clean energy transition. They’ve done this at the behest of the oil industry, so that billionaires can rake in even more money while polluting our planet and endangering people in America and around the world.

By withdrawing from the IPCC, UNFCCC, and the other vital international partnerships, the Trump Administration is undoing decades of hard-won diplomacy, attempting to undermine climate science, and sowing distrust around the world. Fortunately, 198 minus one does not equal zero. While the U.S. federal government sits on the sidelines, world leaders, local and state governments, and the private sector will continue to move forward with the clean energy transition and uphold the goals set forth in the Paris Agreement because it is in their best interest to do so. Clean energy remains the most affordable, scalable, and sustainable solution to meet the energy demands of the future and with this reckless decision the United States will only be left behind.

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Phyllis Cuttino, CEO of The Climate Reality Project:

The Trump Administration’s retreat from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) upends decades of global collaboration to solve the climate crisis. This misguided decision ignores both the undeniable economic benefits of the inevitable clean energy transition and the dangers and expense of unabated climate change for American families and communities. This is the very opposite of leadership. We need leaders who will stand up to Big Oil and instead fight for a sustainable future that ensures people and the planet can thrive.

What’s more, the administration is also withdrawing from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is the very body that assesses climate science so that policymakers can make informed decisions. Rather than following the science, the Trump Administration continues to willfully ignore the realities, turning its back on the future and opportunities, while the rest of the world presses on without us. Ceding global leadership is a shortsighted move that will only leave Americans increasingly exposed to dangerous climate disasters, raise costs from energy to insurance for consumers and communities, and diminish our ability to build the future we desire for our children and generations to come.