The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), along with other U.S. government unions, has sued the Trump Administration for its labor practices and governance policies. AFSA is crucial to the U.S. climate program, as many foreign service officers have responsibilities to support U.S. climate actions. Unfortunately, those actions have taken a regressive turn, as President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement and a State Department reorganization has been proposed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. That reorganization would abolish the Office of Global Change and the Climate Envoy position, both of which have taken the lead in climate negotiations. DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency, sic.) also proposed closing NOAA offices such as the Office of Atmospheric Research, which has led the U.S. in climate research that supported international efforts such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The U.S. will become increasingly isolated as a result of these changes, making us a pariah state when it comes to international climate policy. The U.S. will play a much diminished role as observer only at the Conference of Parties (COP30) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Belem, Brazil this fall.
Update on June 12, 2025: An appeals court in California upheld a district court injunction with the princiiple “Neither the Constitution nor any federal statute grants the President the authority to direct the kind of large-scale reorganization of the federal government at issue.” The Trump administration has appealed the case to the Supreme Court.
No responses yet