EU warns of 'serious blow' from Trump on climate change

8/1/2025 15:47

Global efforts to address climate change will be dealt a severe blow if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump again pulls the country out of the Paris Agreement, the EU's head of climate change policy has warned.



Trump's transition team has prepared executive orders to withdraw the United States - currently the world's second-biggest polluter, after China - from the main global treaty on climate change, according to sources in the team.



EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told Reuters in an interview, "If that were to happen, that would be a serious blow for international climate diplomacy."



He said, another U.S. exit from the Paris Agreement would require other countries to "double down on climate diplomacy" in response.



Hoekstra said of the U.N. climate talks, "There's no alternative to make sure that, in the end, everyone chips in, because climate change is indiscriminate. This truly is a problem that the world needs to solve together."



The Paris Agreement is the centrepiece of United Nations climate negotiations in which nearly 200 countries discuss steps to curb emissions and funding to pay for these efforts.