Trump withdraws US from key climate treaty citing UN’s ‘hostile agendas’ to USA – BBC claims Trump’s move ‘could significantly delay’ next IPCC report which ‘guides governments on how to tackle climate change’

Nearly half of the 66 affected bodies are UN-related, including the Framework Convention on Climate Change – a treaty that underpins all international efforts to combat global warming.

Groups working on development, gender equality and conflict – areas the Trump administration had repeatedly dismissed as advancing “globalist” or “woke” agendas – are also included.

The White House said the decision was taken because those entities “no longer serve American interests” and promote “ineffective or hostile agendas”.

The memorandum was signed on Wednesday following a review, with the White House describing the organisations as “a waste of taxpayer dollars”.

“These withdrawals will end American taxpayer funding and involvement in entities that advance globalist agendas over US priorities,” it said in a statement.

It added that many of the organisations promoted “radical climate policies, global governance and ideological programs that conflict with US sovereignty and economic strength”.

As well as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the US has also withdrawn from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the world’s leading authority on climate science that pulls together the most respected reports on the science of rising global temperatures.

Sources within the organisation told the BBC that they were concerned about the potential impact of the Trump administration’s withdrawal on US scientists involved in producing the body’s next set of studies.

The White House has already blocked US scientists attending a meeting in China.

Any restrictions on travel or the participation of US researchers could significantly delay the release of the next set of IPCC reports, including potentially its mitigation report – a key document guiding governments on how to tackle climate change.

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EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said the UNFCCC “underpins global climate action” and called the US retreat “regrettable and unfortunate”, while the EU’s clean transition vice-president Teresa Ribera said the administration showed little concern for the environment, health or human suffering.

A member of a US-based non-profit advocacy group, the Union of Concerned Scientists, described the step as a “new low”.