Outcry Builds Over Trump’s Illegal Withdrawal From International Climate Treaties

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President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he would withdraw the United States from more than 60 international organizations and treaties, including the framework agreement for addressing climate change that a Republican administration helped to craft 33 years ago.

The moves, which face certain legal challenges and will take at least a year to execute in any case, go far beyond the nation’s exit from the Paris Agreement, which Trump announced at the start of his second term. They would mean that the U.S., the largest historic contributor to the world’s greenhouse gas overload, would be the only nation with no role in international negotiations to reduce pollution or aid poor nations that are bearing the brunt of climate impacts. The action invites a legal reckoning over Constitutional questions, such as whether a president can unilaterally abandon a treaty that has been Senate-ratified, as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was.

Here are some initial reactions to Trump’s move to exit the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was signed by President George H.W. Bush and ratified by the Senate on Oct. 8, 1992:

Gina McCarthy, chair of America Is All In, former White House National Climate Advisor and 13th administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

“This is a shortsighted, embarrassing and foolish decision. As the only country in the world not a part of the UNFCCC treaty, the Trump administration is throwing away decades of U.S. climate change leadership and global collaboration. This administration is forfeiting our country’s ability to influence trillions of dollars in investments, policies and decisions that would have advanced our economy and protected us from costly disasters wreaking havoc on our country.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee

“This polluter-driven stoogery shows the full extent of creepy polluters’ control over the Trump Administration. Trump’s corrupt fossil fuel interests threaten the well-being of millions around the world on the front lines of climate disaster, defy the will of the American people and damage U.S. economic competitiveness. Moreover, once the Senate has ratified a treaty, only the Senate can withdraw from the treaty; this announcement is not just corrupt, it’s illegal.”

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He is of the ignorant belief that our reindustrialization plans need deregulation…if we are to avoid tax hikes.

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I’m not understanding how the President is allowed to withdraw from treaties and pacts agreed to by Congress, without Congress having a say. The Constitution is pretty clear that once it’s ratified and signed it exists as a matter of law.

Yes, I know he’s flagrantly dismissing other laws, but I don’t get it. Either it’s in law or it’s not. How else could it work?

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The Senate did ratify the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) so the question is, do presidents have the authority to cancel ratified treaties? The Constitution does not make that clear, and the situation is rare enough that few if any precedents exist to determine the answer.

However, the UNFCCC itself does not mandate specific emissions reduction targets; rather it serves as a framework for future climate agreements. Agreements such as the Kyoto and Paris accords were never ratified by the Senate, so they are more executive agreements.

DB2

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Does the President have authority to unilaterally cancel laws?

I think it’s entirely clear. Once it has been ratified, it takes a similar procedure to “un ratify”, just as it would take a new law to supersede an old one.

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Agreed, but as noted above the UNFCCC is a “framework” agreement and doesn’t commit the US to anything in particular (AFAIK). Think of it as aspirational

In contrast, Clinton never submitted the Kyoto Protocols to the Senate. The Paris Agreement was not ratified by the Senate; rather it was ‘accepted’ by executive order by Obama.

DB2

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