UNFCCC, IPCC, IUCN to suffer funding cuts

Moses Ziyambi

The United States government has announced withdrawal from 66 international organisations, dozens of which work to promote environmental conservation and the fight against climate change.

Most notable among the organisations include the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The UNFCCC works to combat climate change by coordinating global efforts to stabilize greenhouse gas levels, acting as the parent treaty for the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, providing a framework for negotiations, and supporting countries with implementation, finance and reporting.

Similarly, the IPCC assesses the science of climate change, its impacts, and future risks, providing policymakers with comprehensive, objective scientific reports to inform climate action, without conducting its own research but by reviewing existing literature.

The IUCN works in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.

“Today, in furtherance of Executive Order 14199, President Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from 66 international organizations identified as part of the Trump Administration’s review of wasteful, ineffective, and harmful international organizations. Review of additional international organizations pursuant to Executive Order 14199 remains ongoing. The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity,” reads part of a press statement posted on the State Department website on 07 January, 2025.

Similarly, the White House website carried a memorandum by Trump to heads of executive departments and agencies, directing them to “take immediate steps to effectuate the withdrawal of the United States from the organizations.”

“I hereby direct all executive departments and agencies (agencies) to take immediate steps to effectuate the withdrawal of the United States from the organizations listed in section 2 of this memorandum as soon as possible.  For United Nations entities, withdrawal means ceasing participation in or funding to those entities to the extent permitted by law,” Trump says in a notice posted on the White House website on the same day.

Titled ‘Withdrawing the United States From and Ending Funding to Certain United Nations Organizations and Reviewing United States Support to All International Organizations,’ Executive Order 14199 was signed by Trump on February 4, 2025, serving as a foundational directive for a sweeping ‘America First’ re-evaluation of U.S. involvement in multilateral institutions.

Other affected organisations include the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).