Trump’s Day One Executive Orders Will Worsen Climate Crisis

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On his first day in office, President Trump has signed a slew of executive orders that will set the United States on a radically different environmental path from the Biden administration. The executive orders and memoranda take the first steps to fulfilling many of Trump’s promises from the campaign trail: withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement, drilling more oil and natural gas, and repealing multiple Biden-era environmental directives and departments.

While Trump’s day-one executive orders are far-reaching, it’s not yet clear how they will be implemented or how quickly they will be felt. Executive orders direct government agencies how to implement the law, but they can be challenged by courts if they appear to violate the US Constitution or other laws, as happened with Trump’s travel ban executive order in January 2017.

Trump’s executive orders do, however, send a clear signal about his administration’s environmental priorities: extracting more fossil fuels, weakening support for green energy, and stepping away from global climate leadership.

Withdrawing From the Paris Agreement

This executive order instructs the US Ambassador to the United Nations to submit 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 emissions and submit five-yearly updates on their climate plans to reach agreed goals on reducing emissions.

In his first term, Trump also withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, although the terms of the agreement meant that the withdrawal did not take place until November 2020. In one of his very first acts as president, Joe Biden had the US rejoin the Paris Agreement. It will take at least a year for the US to leave the Agreement.

“This short-sighted move shows a disregard for science and the well-being of people around the world, including Americans, who are already losing their homes, livelihoods, and loved ones as a result of climate change,” says Jonathan Foley, executive director of the climate charity Project Drawdown.

The executive order also rescinds the US International Climate Finance Plan—a Biden administration increase in international climate finance that reached over $11 billion a year by 2024. “Essentially it’s the world’s richest country turning its back on the the poorest countries at the time when they are suffering the most,” says Bob Ward, policy director at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change the the Environment.

Encouraging Fossil Fuel Extraction

President Trump dedicated three executive orders to making it easier for the US to exploit its vast fossil fuel reserves. On the campaign trail Trump consistently promised to “drill, baby, drill,” and in his first day as president he underscored this sloganeering with orders to remove Biden-era regulations and environmental rules that restrict fossil fuel exploration.

One executive order focuses specifically on Alaska, which has vast fossil fuel reserves and was the location for Willow—a controversial oil and gas project approved by the Biden administration in 2023. Trump’s executive order opens the doors wide open to other projects, calling for the US to “expedite the permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects” in Alaska and the revocation of any regulations passed by the Biden administration that may hinder this aim. It also specifically rescinds the cancellation of leases within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and withdraws an order from the Secretary of the Interior that temporarily paused oil and gas leasing in the refuge.

A second executive order declared a national energy emergency, stating that the US energy production was “far too inadequate to meet our Nation’s needs.” The order instructs the heads of government agencies to use emergency authorities in order to identify, lease, and exploit domestic energy resources.

A third executive order under the title “Unleashing American Energy” covers a wide range of policies, including encouraging energy production on federal land and waters, making the US the leader in non-fuel miners, including rare earth miners, and terminating state-level emissions waivers and subsidies for EVs. The order also promises to “safeguard the American people’s freedom to choose” lightbulbs, dishwashers, washing machines, gas stoves, and other appliances, in an apparent nod to the controversy over New York’s law banning natural gas stoves in new homes and buildings.

“The US will no longer be in a leadership position on these issues. It’s going to have real economic consequences for the US that will come back to bite President Trump before the end of this term,” says Ward, adding that the US will lose ground to China particularly in terms of electric vehicles and political leadership on climate change.

“China will be the one now seen as being the world leader on this and will be able to establish lots of economic and diplomatic links with other countries at a time when the US will look to be completely hopeless on this issue.”

Suspending New Offshore Wind Farms

In an executive memorandum, Trump suspended all new leasing for offshore wind farms, citing “growing demand for reliable energy” and “impacts on ocean currents and wind patterns.” The memorandum temporarily prevents the consideration of wind farm leases in areas on the US outer continental shelf—parts of the ocean floor that lie beyond state coastal waters.

Executive memoranda are similar to executive orders, but they are not required to cite the President’s legal authority, and the Office of Management and Budget is not required to issue a “Budgetary Impact Statement” as is the case with executive orders.

Redirecting Water in California

In another memorandum, Trump picked up a policy from his first administration—a plan to route water from the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state. This plan was signed-off by Trump in 2020 but was challenged in court by California governor Gavin Newsom and the state of California. Trump has repeatedly blamed this delay on “worthless fish,” arguing that environmental rules have slowed the building of water infrastructure in California.

The memorandum—titled “Putting People Over Fish”—explicitly calls out “radical environmentalism,” which Trump implies is behind the delay to his infrastructure project. “This catastrophic halt was allegedly in protection of the Delta smelt and other species of fish,” the text of the memorandum reads.

Undoing Biden-Era Climate Projects

In the same executive order that “unleashed” US fossil fuel exploitation, Trump revoked Biden-era executive orders and actions that set up new organizations to tackle climate change. This includes Executive Order 14008, which established a National Climate Task Force, most recently chaired by National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi.