in his first Since day one in office, President Trump has signed a series of executive orders that will put the United States on a radically different environmental path than the Biden administration. The executive orders and memos take the first steps toward fulfilling many of the promises Trump made during the campaign: withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement, drilling for more oil and natural gas, and repealing multiple Biden-era environmental directives and departments.
While Trump’s day one executive orders are far-reaching, it is still unclear how they will be implemented or how quickly they will be felt. Executive orders tell government agencies how to implement the law, but can be challenged by courts if they appear to violate the U.S. Constitution or other laws, as was the case with Trump’s travel ban executive order in January 2017.
However, Trump’s executive orders send a clear signal about his administration’s environmental priorities: extracting more fossil fuels, weakening support for green energy, and moving away from global climate leadership.
Withdraw from the Paris Agreement
This executive order directs the United States ambassador to the United Nations to submit formal notification that the United States is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Paris Agreement, signed in 2016, commits countries to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and submitting five-year updates on their climate plans to achieve agreed emissions reduction targets.
In his first term, Trump also withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, although the terms of the agreement meant that the withdrawal did not occur until November 2020. In one of his first acts as president, Joe Biden had the United States rejoin to the Paris Agreement. It will take at least a year for the United States to abandon the Agreement.
“This short-sighted measure shows a disregard for science and the well-being of people around the world, including Americans, who are already losing their homes, livelihoods and loved ones as a result of climate change,” says Jonathan Foley , executive director. director of climate charity Project Drawdown.
The executive order also rescinds the US International Climate Finance Plan, a Biden administration increase in international climate finance that reached more than $11 billion a year by 2024. “It’s basically the richest country in the world.” the one that turns its back on the poorest countries at a time when they are suffering the most,” says Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.
Promotion of fossil fuel extraction
President Trump dedicated three executive orders to making it easier for the United States to exploit its vast fossil fuel reserves. During the election campaign, Trump consistently promised to “drill, baby, drill,” and on his first day as president he underscored this slogan with orders to eliminate Biden-era environmental regulations and standards that restrict fossil fuel exploration.
An executive order focuses specifically on Alaska, which has vast fossil fuel reserves and was the location of Willow, a controversial oil and gas project approved by the Biden administration in 2023. Trump’s executive order opens the door wide to other projects, calling on the United States to “expedite the permitting and leasing of energy and natural resources projects” in Alaska and to repeal any regulations passed by the Biden administration that may hinder this objective. It also specifically rescinds the cancellation of leases within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and withdraws an order from the Secretary of the Interior that temporarily suspended oil and gas leasing in the Refuge.