President Donald Trump has previously instructed his administration to review participation in international bodies, and on Wednesday he signed an order suspending support for several of them.
Among the agencies the US is leaving are the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC forms the basis of all major international climate agreements.
The treaty is a global agreement on cooperation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra is critical.
“The decision by the world's largest economy and second largest emitter to withdraw from it is regrettable and unfortunate,” he writes in a post on LinkedIn.
In a statement from the US State Department, the organizations are called, among other things, redundant, mismanaged and unnecessary.
