The climate rules Trump has ripped-up already
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Moments after taking office, the new president Donald Trump issued a flurry of orders ripping up rules to protect the climate and natural world. The broad roll back of climate policy, much of it advanced under Joe Biden's previous administration, aims to maximise oil and gas production and lower household energy bills.
Mr Trump vowed to "end Biden's policies of climate extremism". Environmental groups have said they intend to challenge the orders, and it's uncertain how effectively they will boost US fossil fuels, given levels are already at a record high. Mr Trump has long called climate change a "hoax", including in November, despite scientific consensus that it is man-made.
But his plan to "unleash American energy" included a commitment to "guarantee that all executive departments and agencies provide opportunity for public comment and rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific analysis". Withdrawing from landmark Paris Agreement on climate.
Long promised, now reality: Donald Trump is pulling the US, the second-biggest climate polluter in the world, out of the most important global treaty for tackling climate change. "I'm immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off," he said.
Struck in 2015, the Paris Agreement was the first time countries agreed to collectively tackle global warming. Trump's move does away with any obligations on the US government to cut planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions, and will take a year to come into effect.
