# UN Framework Convention on Climate Change The UNFCCC was opened for signature at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and entered into force in 1994. It has **198 parties** — universal membership, every UN member state plus the EU, Palestine, the Cook Islands and Niue. It is a **framework** convention: it establishes the objective, the principles, the reporting obligations, and above all the **institutional machinery** — the annual Conference of the Parties — through which more specific instruments get negotiated. The [[Kyoto Protocol]] and the [[Paris Agreement]] are both products of it. It sets no emissions targets itself. The United States ratified it in 1992 under George H. W. Bush, with unanimous Senate consent. ## The Withdrawal **Presidential Memorandum of 7 January 2026** — see [[2026 International Organizations Withdrawal Memorandum]] — directed withdrawal from the UNFCCC along with the IPCC, IRENA, the International Solar Alliance, IUCN and dozens of other bodies. Published in the Federal Register on 16 January. **UN depositary notification C.N.102.2026** records the withdrawal notification as **received 27 February 2026**, taking effect **27 February 2027** under Article 25's one-year notice period. > [!note] The date to use > Some reporting says the notification was lodged on 1 March 2026. The UN depositary record of **27 February 2026** is authoritative — and 27 February 2026 was a Friday, which looks like the source of the slip. **This would make the United States the first nation ever to formally exit the framework convention.** The UNFCCC Executive Secretary called it "a colossal own goal." The distinction from the [[Paris Agreement]] exit, completed 27 January 2026, is the thing most often collapsed in coverage: - Leaving **Paris** means abandoning a nationally determined contribution under an agreement. It is reversible by rejoining, as happened in 2021. - Leaving the **UNFCCC** means leaving the treaty regime that produces such agreements — the COP process, the reporting architecture, the subsidiary bodies, the seat in the room. Rejoining requires re-accession. Treasury separately announced withdrawal from the Green Climate Fund and resignation from its board seat on 8 January 2026. ## The COPs **COP30 — Belém, 10–22 November 2025.** The final package, the "global mutirão" decision, contained **no fossil-fuel roadmap**, disappointing 82 nations that pushed for one; the presidency said it would present separate roadmaps at the next COP. It "calls for efforts" to triple adaptation finance by 2035 against 2025 levels — weaker than the 2030 target developing countries sought. **The United States sent no federal delegation.** Sub-national presence was maintained through the US Climate Alliance and America Is All In. **COP31 — Antalya, Türkiye, 9–20 November 2026**, under an unusual **Türkiye–Australia co-presidency**: Türkiye hosts and presides, Australia leads negotiations, an arrangement struck around 20 November 2025 after Australia conceded the hosting bid. ## Why It Matters Here The UNFCCC exit is the **most consequential single item** in the entire 2025–26 withdrawal sequence, and it is the one that has attracted the least attention relative to its weight. Everything else the vault documents in this cluster is reversible on a timescale of one administration. Paris was left in 2017, rejoined in 2021, left again in 2026. The [[World Health Organization]] can be rejoined. Assessed contributions can be paid. Even the [[World Trade Organization]] Appellate Body could be restored by simply approving appointments. Leaving the framework convention is different in kind. It removes the United States from the only universal forum where climate policy is negotiated, at the moment that forum is choosing between a fossil-fuel transition roadmap and continued deferral. The next COP after the withdrawal takes effect will be the first climate negotiation since 1995 conducted without an American seat. It also completes a pattern the [[G20]] page describes from the other direction. There, the US kept the institution and cut climate from the agenda. Here it left the institution whose entire subject is climate. The two moves are the same policy expressed through the two available mechanisms. ## See Also - [[Paris Agreement]] — the agreement under the convention, exited a month earlier - [[Kyoto Protocol]] — the first protocol under this convention - [[2026 International Organizations Withdrawal Memorandum]] — the instrument - [[G20]] — where climate was cut from the agenda rather than exited - [[Montreal Protocol]] — the environmental treaty the US has not left - [[US Treaty and Organization Withdrawal Timeline]]