The United States has withdrawn from the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
The Treasury Department announced the move Thursday. It comes in conjunction with President Donald Trump's policy memorandum withdrawing from a number of international bodies, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), of which the GCF is under the auspices.
“Our nation will no longer fund radical organizations like the GCF whose goals run contrary to the fact that affordable, reliable energy is fundamental to economic growth and poverty reduction,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a
press release on the Department's website Thursday.
The United States is also withdrawing from its seat on the GCF's board.
"The Trump Administration is committed to advancing all affordable and reliable sources of energy, which are fundamental to economic growth and poverty reduction," the press release added. "The GCF was established to supplement the objectives of the UNFCCC, and continued participation in the GCF has been determined to no longer be consistent with the Trump Administration’s priorities and goals."
The
Green Climate Fund funds green energy and climate resilience projects in the developing world, operating under the Financial Mechanism of the UNFCCC. The fund was established at the United Nations Conference of Parties in 2010, and its governing instrument was adopted the following year in 2011. It began disbursing funds in 2014, but its current financial mechanism was established and funded by 195 countries in 2015 as part of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, Simon Stiell, blasted the move in a
statement.
"While all other nations are stepping forward together, this latest step back from global leadership, climate cooperation and science can only harm the US economy, jobs and living standards, as wildfires, floods, mega-storms and droughts get rapidly worse," Stiell said. "It is a colossal own goal which will leave the US less secure and less prosperous."
But Conservatives in Congress hailed it as a major win for American taxpayers.
"The Green Climate Fund has been funneling American tax dollars into UN climate schemes since 2010—pushing woke climate alarmism in developing nations on YOUR dime," the
Republican Study Committee wrote on X. "This move is yet another major win for taxpayers. America First means keeping your money IN AMERICA."
On Wednesday, the White House issued a
policy memorandum that the United States would exit 66 international organizations of which the country is a member and provides funding or material support, which the Trump Administration deemed contrary to American interests. The move corresponded to a February Executive Order to conduct a review of those organizations for the purpose of withdrawing from them.
Of those 66 organizations, 31 were tied to the United Nations, including: the Peacebuilding Commission and Peacebuilding Fund; UN Democracy Fund; UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women; UN Human Settlements Programme; and UN Population Fund. Another 31 organizations were non-UN international bodies.
"The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity," Secretary of State
Marco Rubio said in a press release following the memo. "President Trump is clear: It is no longer acceptable to be sending these institutions the blood, sweat, and treasure of the American people, with little to nothing to show for it. The days of billions of dollars in taxpayer money flowing to foreign interests at the expense of our people are over."
