WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday announced the United States’ intention to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord for a second time, a defiant rejection of global efforts to combat planetary warming as catastrophic weather events intensify worldwide.

The Republican leader also said his administration would declare a “national energy emergency” to significantly expand drilling in the world’s top oil and gas producer and scrap upcoming stringent pollution standards for cars and trucks, which he has derided as an “electric vehicle mandate”.

“President Trump will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord,” the White House said in a statement shortly after the Republican was sworn into office, without providing a specific timeline.

It would take a year to leave the agreement after submitting a formal notice to the United Nations framework that underpins global climate negotiations.

Even before the formal exit, the move delivers a serious blow to international cooperation aimed at reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Critics warn it could embolden other major polluters like China and India to scale back their own commitments.

It comes as global average temperatures over the past two years surpassed the critical 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold for the first time, underscoring the urgency of climate action.

“The US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement is unfortunate, but multilateral climate action has proven resilient and is stronger than any single country’s politics and policies,” said Laurence Tubiana, chief executive officer of the European Climate Foundation and a key architect of the Paris Agreement.

Trump used his inauguration speech to preview a raft of sweeping energy-related federal orders aimed at undoing Biden’s climate legacy.

“The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices, and that is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will ‘drill, baby, drill!'” Trump said.

“We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it,” he added.

“With my actions today, we will end the green new deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry.”

Trump’s mention of the “green new deal” may be a reference to the Inflation Reduction Act — Biden’s signature climate law that channels billions into clean energy tax credits — rather than a 2019 resolution of the same name, which never passed Congress.