Trump 2.0 began with a bang, with the newly elected U.S. President passing a series of various executive orders and pulling out of the Paris Agreement—the international climate change agreement adopted in December 2015 by nations that are arties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The executive order on Paris Agreement withdrawal, signed by President Trump on January 20, 2025 and titled “Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements,” starts the process of withdrawing the U.S. from any environmental agreement or pact.
Let’s take a look at what happened to the status of global warming and climate change after Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement in January 2016.
READ: Will Trump 2.0 be a blow to climate change? (January 23, 2025)
He accused the agreement’s conditions imposing unfair economic burdens on American workers, businesses, and taxpayers by U.S. pledges made under the agreement.
In 2022, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions totaled 6,343 million metric tons (14.0 trillion pounds) of carbon dioxide equivalents. This total represents a 3% decrease since 1990, down from a high of 15.2% above 1990 levels in 2007. The sharp decline in emissions from 2019 to 2020 was largely due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on travel and economic activity.
Emissions increased from 2020 to 2022 by 5.7%, driven largely by an increase in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion due to economic activity rebounding after the height of the pandemic which could be considered as a relief to this maverick decision—the result of reducing industrial activities.
Secondly, the impact of this decision should be evaluated at the rise of temperature globally. According to NASA and other climate data, both 2016 and 2020 are considered to be tied for the warmest year on record, marking a significant rise in global temperature compared to previous years; they experienced the highest average global temperature recorded.
As mentioned in the report Climate Change: Global Temperature, “the likely range of total human-caused global surface temperature increase from 1850–1900 to 2010–2019 is 0.8°C to 1.3°C with a best estimate of 1.07°C [2.01 ˚F]. Over this period, it is likely that well-mixed greenhouse gases (GHGs) contributed a warming of 1.0°C to 2.0°C, and other human drivers (principally aerosols) contributed a cooling of 0.0°C to 0.8°C, natural (solar and volcanic) drivers changed global surface temperature by –0.1°C to +0.1°C, and internal variability changed it by –0.2°C to +0.2°C.”
Researchers and experts warn catastrophic consequences of climate change, for instance BrooklynPaper.com—the go-to site for Brooklyn news and events—calls people to prepare for hotter summers and more intense storms, facing a future shaped by climate change. Likewise, the Omair Ahmad of The Stimson Center, a nonprofit and nonpartisan thinktank that analyzes issues related to global peace, wrote in a paper titled “Data Secrecy is Stymieing Climate Cooperation in South Asia,” that “Governments in South Asia are preventing cooperation on climate related issues by gatekeeping data from their own citizens.”
The impact of this global rise in temperature could be clearly seen at two levels: rise in the global sea-level and forest fires, that has severely hit the factories and homes of the dream city, selling the multi-color dreams.
Many studies have concluded that between 2016 and 2020, the global sea level continued to rise progressively with the rate of increase accelerating, meaning the sea level was rising faster in 2020 compared to 2016. According to available data, the average rate of rise during this period was around 3.4 millimeters per year, with some studies indicating an even faster rate of increase towards 2020.
The NASA Earth Observatory in its report “Tracking 30 Years of Sea Level Rise” notes, “Scientists have found that global mean sea level—shown in the line plot above and below—has risen 10.1 centimeters (3.98 inches) since 1992. Over the past 140 years, satellites and tide gauges together show that global sea level has risen 21 to 24 centimeters (8 to 9 inches).”
The same report also notes the yearly rise of four millimeters per year, totaling 100.9 millimeters since 1993. Many small island countries are affecting people in coastal areas through sea level rise, increasing heavy rain events, tropical cyclones and storm surges. In addition, island nations like the Maldives and nations of the Caribbean and Pacific Islands like Panama are already experiencing considerable impacts of climate change.
Many Caribbean Island nations such as Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago are severely threatened, so much so that many could lose their existence and submerge into the rising sea.
Another serious impact of the climate change, as proven by many scientific studies including by the NASA, is the rise in the frequency spread and potency of wildfires—the most severe being the recent California fires which are still going on.
Let’s first assess the extent of wildfire in the U.S. itself. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notes, “Since 1983, the National Interagency Fire Center has documented an average of approximately 70,000 wildfires per year. Compiled data from the Forest Service suggest that the actual total may be even higher for the first few years of nationwide data collection that can be compared. The data do not show an obvious trend during this time.”
The extent of area burned by wildfires each year appears to have increased since the 1980s. According to National Interagency Fire Center data of the 10 years with the largest acreage burned, all have occurred since 2004 including the peak years in 2015 and 2020. This period coincides with many of the warmest years on record nationwide. The largest increases have occurred during the spring and summer months.
World Resource Institute (WRI) reconfirms it, “The latest data on forest fires confirms what we’ve long feared: Forest fires are becoming more widespread, burning at least twice as much tree cover today as they did two decades ago.”
Using data from researchers at the University of Maryland which was recently updated to cover the years 2001 to 2023, WRI calculated that the area burned by forest fires increased by about 5.4% per year over that time period. Forest fires now result in nearly six million more hectares of tree cover loss per year than they did in 2001 — an area roughly the size of Croatia.
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“Fire is also making up a larger share of global tree cover loss compared to other drivers like mining and forestry. While fires only accounted for about 20% of all tree cover loss in 2001, they now account for roughly 33%,” WRI’s report added.
Even at the global level, the frequency and extent of wildfires increased from 2016 and 2020 as data by the same institute notes, “According to available data, the global frequency and extent of wildfires were significantly higher in 2020 compared to 2016, with 2020 seeing a notable increase in both the number of fires and total area burned, indicating a larger overall wildfire impact across the globe; this trend aligns with observations of increasing wildfire severity in recent years linked to climate.”
At the end, it could be said that the latest executive order of Trump’s second administration pulling out of the Paris Agreement once again, is like that ostrich who shoved its head in the sand, waiting for the storm to get over.