On his first day in office, President Trump has signed a series of executive orders that will set the United States on an environmental path very different from that of the Biden administration. The executive order and memorandum take the first steps toward fulfilling many of Trump’s promises from the campaign trail: Withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, drilling for more oil and natural gas, and repealing several Biden-era environmental directives and departments. While Trump’s day-one executive order is far reaching, it is not yet clear how it will be implemented or how quickly it will be felt. Executive order direct government agencies how to implement the law, but they can be challenged by the court if they appear to violate the US Constitution or other laws, as happened with Trump’s travel ban executive order in January 2017. However, Trump’s executive order should deliver. a clear signal of his administration’s environmental priorities: More fossil fuel extraction, reduced support for green energy, and a retreat from global climate leadership. Approval This executive order directs the US Ambassador to the United Nations to send formal notification that the US is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Paris Agreement, signed in 2016, commits countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and submit a five-year update on the climate plan to achieve the agreed goals to reduce emissions. of the agreement means that the withdrawal does not take place until November 2020. In one of his first acts as president, Joe Biden asked the US to rejoin the Paris Agreement. It will take at least a year for the US to leave the Agreement. loved ones as a result of climate change,” said Jonathan Foley, executive director of the climate charity Project Drawdown. The executive order also canceled the US International Climate Finance Plan – the Biden administration’s increase in international climate finance. which reached more than $11 billion per year in 2024. “Essentially the richest countries in the world are rejecting the poorest countries while they are suffering,” said Bob Ward, director of policy at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Institute for Research on Environmental Climate Change Fossil Fuels President Trump issues three executive orders to make it easier for the US to exploit its abundant fossil fuel reserves. to remove Biden-era regulations and environmental rules that limit fossil fuel exploration. One executive order focuses specifically on Alaska, which has large fossil fuel reserves and is the site of the controversial Willow oil and gas project approved by the Biden administration in 2023. Trump’s executive order opens the door to more projects, calling on the US to “accelerate permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects” in Alaska and repealing any regulations imposed by the Biden administration that could hinder those goals. It also specifically revokes the cancellation of leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and reverses an order from the Secretary of the Interior temporarily pausing oil and gas leasing in the Refuge.
