While states and cities affect progress in the fight against climate change, effective federal policy is needed to achieve deep, long-term reductions in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and to help strengthen climate resilience. The priorities of the executive branch have profound effects on our progress in mitigating and adapting to climate change.
WHAT ACTIONS DID THE LAST FEW ADMINISTRATIONS TAKE INTERNATIONALLY?
The Executive branch plays a pivotal role in international diplomacy and has the potential to position the US as a leader in combatting climate change and moving towards resilience. In brief:
- In 1997, The Clinton Administration participated in negotiating the Kyoto Protocol, the first international greenhouse gas reduction effort.
- In 2001, the Bush Administration withdrew from implementing the Kyoto Protocol.
- In September 2016, during the Obama administration, the US joined the Paris Agreement in 2015 joining 190 other countries.
- In June 2017 Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Agreement --a decision that took effect in November 2020.
- On January 20th, 2021, when President Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, he simultaneously moved to rejoin the Paris Agreement pledging to put the climate crisis at the center of American foreign policy.
- President Biden ordered that Special Envoy, John Kerry, work with the Secretary of Treasury to develop an international climate finance plan for the United States.
- In the fall of 2023, Michael Regan, Biden’s administrator of the EPA, announced at COP28 final standards to sharply reduce methane emissions from oil and gas operations.
- In December, 2023 - a year when the United Nations’ climate diplomacy process was led by the head of a state-owned oil company - the Biden administration overcame the influence of the global fossil fuel industry and helped win the first unanimous agreement of all countries to call for a global transition away from fossil fuels.
- John Podesta took John Kerry’s place in January, 2024, as Kerry stepped down to work on Biden’s reelection campaign.
- In January 2025, President Trump once again withdrew from the Paris Agreement, just hours after taking office.
WHAT ACTIONS HAS THE CURRENT TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TAKEN DOMESTICALLY?
WHERE YOU CAN FIND A LIST OF PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE ORDERS
The President of the United States manages the operations of the Executive branch of Government through Executive orders. After the President signs an Executive Order, the White House sends it to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR). Barack Obama issued 277 executive orders in his administration; Donald Trump issued 220, Joseph R. Biden had signed 162.
The Washington Post kept careful track of Biden climate actions and which of Trump’s he overturned or targeted.
In his second administration Trump has, through May 12, signed 152 executive orders. The New York Times kept track on Trump’s major climate moves in the first 100 days, here.
On this website, we have a page devoted to executive orders as they relate to climate, here.
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