President Donald Trump’s first week in office included a flurry of executive orders with implications for Earth’s climate and environment.
While former President Joe Biden made climate change a hallmark of his administration and some of his policies remain, at least for now, Trump is quickly unraveling that, even as many of his moves are likely to be challenged in court.
Experts say Trump’s moves to step away from global climate action, ramp up domestic oil and gas production and remove incentives for electric vehicles are worrisome as the planet continues to heat up. 2024 was Earth’s hottest year on record, and climate scientists say the rising heat is contributing to extreme weather affecting millions.
“These orders will make our air dirtier, make people sicker, make energy more expensive, and make our communities less prepared for extreme weather,” wrote Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist, policy expert and author who co-founded the non-profit think tank Urban Ocean Lab.
Here are some of Trump’s most notable moves affecting climate and environmental issues in his first week:
Pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement
Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the United States to again withdraw from the landmark Paris climate agreement aimed at global cooperation on climate change.
The agreement requires participating countries to come up with nationally determined contributions to the effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions that are heating the planet. Trump’s move means the federal government won’t be trying to meet emissions reductions goals, nor any financial commitments to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“Walking away from the Paris Agreement won’t protect Americans from climate impacts, but it will hand China and the European Union a competitive edge in the booming clean energy economy and lead to fewer opportunities for American workers,” said Ani Dasgupta, president and CEO of the World Resources Institute.
Declaring a “national energy emergency,” doubling down on oil and gas
Trump declared an energy emergency via executive order amid a promise to “drill, baby, drill.”
The order urges oil and gas expansion including through federal use of eminent domain and the Defense Production Act, which allow the government to use private land and resources to produce goods deemed to be a national necessity.
Experts dispute his description of an “inadequate energy supply” as part of the basis for the order.
“The reality is that the United States is well-supplied with energy in all of its forms,” said Gary Dirks, senior director of the Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University. Dirks said he thinks the move is actually more targeted at bringing down prices at the pump.
“It’s important to note that the United States right now is the largest producer of oil of any nation in history. And we got to that point under the Biden administration, not because of the Biden administration’s policies necessarily, but because of policies that have been ongoing for four decades,” he said.
Faster permitting for energy; harsh words for Endangered Species Act
and Arctic protections
One section of the order declaring an energy emergency states that the Endangered Species Act cannot be an obstacle to energy development.
The Endangered Species Act has been a hurdle for the development of fossil fuels in the U.S. for decades, and weakening it would accelerate the decline and potential extinction of numerous endangered species, including whales and sea turtles, said Gib Brogan, a campaign director with conservation group Oceana.
Trump also opened up areas in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling. Biden had previously both restricted and approved drilling in other parts of the Arctic, part of a long process mired in litigation and complicated by political battles.
“I would begin by pointing out that there was an attempt to lease for oil drilling recently and nobody bid,” Dirks said. “I don’t actually think that the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge is an exciting place for oil and gas exploration.”
But he expressed concern about preserving biodiversity, something other scientists and environmental groups have highlighted.
“The Arctic is a very fragile system,” said Peter Schlosser, vice president and vice provost of global futures at Arizona State. Schlosser added that drilling there would disrupt the land and sea, and that potential contamination or oil spills are more difficult to clean up there due to low temperatures.
Revoke Biden’s goals on electric vehicles
Trump promised to eliminate what he incorrectly calls Biden’s “electric vehicle mandate.”
What that means in practice is that the order will revoke a non-binding goal set by Biden to have EVs make up half of new cars sold by 2030. He will also likely seek repeal of a $7,500 tax credit for new EV purchases approved by Congress as part of Biden’s landmark 2022 climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.
All of that is likely frustrating for automakers, who have to make long-term decisions, said Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at auto-buying research firm Edmunds. As the rest of the world moves to electric cars, automakers have to decide how to factor in the global direction the industry is headed alongside the sudden lack of federal support.
“We do think that the long-term end goal here is going to be electrification. It’s just the timeline it seems is uncertain right now,” she said.
Eliminate a push for environmental justice
When the government reviews new facilities that emit pollution, officials are no longer likely to consider a concept known as environmental justice, or how that new pollution will add to the emissions that have tended to fall more heavily on poor and minority communities.
Those are sweeping moves that Rena Payan, chief program officer at nonprofit Justice Outside, called “rolling back decades of progress in addressing environmental discrimination.”
That means more of a burden for state and local groups to fight to protect those communities. Trump’s decision to cut off support will hurt, but many of these organizations are used to operating without federal support — they have done so for years, according to Peggy Shepard, co-founder and executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice.
“What I’m grappling right now with is both the grief of these losses, and the fact that we were on an upward swing, if you will, just weeks ago,” said Jade Begay, an Indigenous rights and climate organizer.
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Associated Press reporters Seth Borenstein, Patrick Whittle, Jennifer McDermott, Michael Phillis, Alexa St. John and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
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Follow Melina Walling on X @MelinaWalling and Bluesky @melinawalling.bsky.social.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
