President Donald Trump has ordered the United States to withdraw from 66 organizations and partnerships, many under the UN umbrella, by executive order. Ed Carr is the director of the American Center at the Stockholm Environment Institute, and has worked on assessments for both the IPCC and IPBES, two of the bodies on the list.
"The government had already withdrawn all travel support and funding for those participating, so the statement that they were withdrawing was just for show," he says.
IPBES is the UN's scientific panel on biodiversity and ecosystem services, and the IPCC is the UN's body for evaluating research on climate change.
"It is the research that everyone agrees on when negotiating climate action and financing, so that everyone is working from the same facts," says Carr.
Sending message
According to him, however, the withdrawal does not mean anything in practice; it mainly means the US voice disappears from them. American researchers like himself will be able to continue working with them.
"The government is clearly trying to send some kind of message about what it thinks we should work on and what we should not, but personally I would be very surprised if it had any real significance for what the research community is working on."
Ed Carr sees the withdrawal as a step towards hiding facts that the board does not like.
"Undermining the IPCC is an attempt to undermine evidence and data and our ability to talk about what's happening in the world. It's the overall effort that worries me."
Wrong name?
One organization mentioned in the decree is the Stockholm-based intergovernmental International IDEA, which supports democracies around the world. The United States joined as an observer under the Biden administration.
"They haven't asked any questions or requested any information from us, so I don't know how they made the assessment that they seem to have made of all these organizations," he says.
Why the US is now choosing to leave is shrouded in mystery.
"I get the impression that having 'democracy' in our name and being based in Europe may have had an impact."
When Trump took office, the US stopped showing up at the meetings, and when the aid agency USAID pulled back, the small amount of financial support disappeared. So the new announcement has little practical significance.
"The US is of course a significant country, but I see no signs that the commitment from our 35 member countries is faltering, quite the opposite," he says.
Gustav Sjöholm/TT
Facts: The organizations Trump wants to leave
TT
On January 7, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order instructing the country's authorities to withdraw from 66 organizations, 31 of which are UN agencies. These include:
Environment and climate: UNFCCC, IPCC, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Social issues: UN Women, UN Population Fund.
Democracy: International IDEA, UN Democracy Fund.
Trade and energy: International Trade Centre, various commodity groups, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Energy Forum and UN Energy.
Security: Global Counterterrorism Forum, Global Forum on Cyber Expertise.
Peacekeeping and cooperation: Four of the UN regional economic commissions (under ECOSOC), the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC).
Science: United Nations University.
