The United States has withdrawn from the Green Climate Fund and relinquished its seat on the fund’s board, according to a Treasury Department announcement describing the move as aligned with the Trump administration’s exit from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
On January 8, 2026, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced: “Effective immediately, the United States is withdrawing from @theGCF.”
According to a statement released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the decision to exit the fund is “in alignment with the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).” The department confirmed that the United States has formally notified the Green Climate Fund of its withdrawal and is “stepping down from its seat on the GCF Board, effective immediately.”
Bessent said, “Our nation will no longer fund radical organizations like the GCF whose goals run contrary to the fact that affordable, reliable energy is fundamental to economic growth and poverty reduction.”
The press release emphasized that the Trump administration remains focused on “advancing all affordable and reliable sources of energy.”
The Treasury Department added that the GCF, which was “established to supplement the objectives of the UNFCCC,” is no longer viewed as compatible with the administration’s current goals. “Continued participation in the GCF has been determined to no longer be consistent with the Trump Administration’s priorities and goals,” the statement concluded.
The move follows the Wednesday, January 7 announcement that the United States would withdraw from 66 organizations and treaties described by Breitbart News as “globalist,” nearly half of them affiliated with the United Nations. At the center of that decision was the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the foundational treaty for major international climate agreements. The Trump administration opposed spending U.S. taxpayer dollars on entities identified as “contrary to the interests of the United States.”
The GCF, created as part of a 2009 U.N. agreement in Copenhagen, was designed to distribute $100 billion annually to developing nations for climate-related projects and damage mitigation efforts. In recent years, U.S. contributions under the Biden administration had significantly increased, including a $1 billion pledge in April 2023 and a $3 billion commitment at the COP28 climate summit in December 2023.
Biden administration officials such as former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry publicly supported these contributions. Harris, speaking at the COP28 climate summit, stated: “Around the world, there are those who seek to slow or stop our progress. Leaders who deny climate science, delay climate action and spread misinformation. Corporations that greenwash their climate inaction and lobby for billions of dollars in fossil fuel subsidies.”
Kerry praised the GCF’s efforts, saying: “The GCF has established a strong track record of enabling countries to accelerate the energy transition, assisting communities around the world in building resilience to the impacts of the climate crisis, and mobilizing significant private capital for climate action.”
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