On his first day in office, President Trump has enacted a series of executive orders that will chart a dramatically different environmental path for the United States compared to the Biden administration. These executive orders and memoranda serve as initial steps toward realizing many of Trump’s campaign promises: exiting the Paris Agreement, increasing drilling for oil and natural gas, and rescinding multiple environmental directives and agencies established during Biden’s tenure.
Although Trump’s executive orders are comprehensive, the specifics of their implementation and the speed at which their effects will be felt remain uncertain. Executive orders guide government agencies on how to enact laws, yet they may face legal challenges if deemed unconstitutional or in violation of other statutes, akin to the legal battles surrounding Trump’s travel ban executive order in January 2017.
Nonetheless, Trump’s executive orders clearly outline his administration’s environmental objectives: boosting fossil fuel extraction, reducing support for renewable energy, and stepping back from international climate leadership.
Exit from the Paris Agreement
This executive order directs the US Ambassador to the United Nations to formally notify the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that the US is retracting its commitment to the Paris Agreement. Signed in 2016, the Paris Agreement requires participating nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide updates on their climate actions every five years to meet established reduction targets.
During his first term, Trump also initiated the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement; however, the terms of the agreement stipulated that the exit would not be finalized until November 2020. In one of his initial actions as president, Joe Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement. It will require at least a year for the US to officially disengage from the Agreement.
“This shortsighted action disregards scientific consensus and the welfare of people worldwide, including Americans, who are already facing losses in homes, jobs, and loved ones due to climate change,” remarks Jonathan Foley, executive director of the climate nonprofit Project Drawdown.
Furthermore, the executive order reverses the US International Climate Finance Plan—a Biden administration initiative aimed at increasing international climate funding to surpass $11 billion annually by 2024. “Essentially, it represents the wealthiest nation turning its back on the most vulnerable countries at a time when they are disproportionately suffering,” states Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.
Promoting Fossil Fuel Extraction
President Trump issued three executive orders aimed at facilitating the US’s exploitation of its abundant fossil fuel reserves. Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly pledged to “drill, baby, drill,” and on his first day in office, he reinforced this message with orders aimed at dismantling Biden-era regulations and environmental safeguards that limit fossil fuel exploration.
One of these executive orders concentrates specifically on Alaska, recognized for its significant fossil fuel reserves and home to Willow—a controversial oil and gas project sanctioned by the Biden administration in 2023. Trump’s executive order actively encourages further projects by calling for the US to “accelerate the permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects” in Alaska and revoking any restrictions imposed by the Biden administration that could obstruct this goal. Additionally, it reverses the cancellation of leases within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and cancels an order from the Secretary of the Interior that had put a temporary hold on oil and gas leasing within the Refuge.
