Conserving biodiversity in the Brazilian Amazon. Combating wildlife trafficking across West Africa. Promoting natural resource governance in the Philippines.
These are just a few of the thousands of environmental programs run by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) around the world.
Sorry, ran – past tense.
For decades, the United States government had been the world’s largest contributor of foreign assistance. In 2023 alone, the U.S. spent USD 71.9 billion on foreign aid, including USD 43.8 billion provided through USAID and another 21.3 billion from the U.S. Department of State.
Until now. Since his return to the White House in January, Donald Trump has pushed an ‘America first’ agenda and, in doing so, is all but shuttering USAID.
The Trump administration has already cut 86 percent of USAID programs and is vying for the remaining few USAID personnel and projects to be absorbed by the State Department, which has also recently had 40 percent of its programs slashed.
These program cuts are a part of Trump’s new so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he says is headed by Elon Musk.
This new initiative is also responsible for cutting USD 4 billion to the Green Climate Fund, as well as big cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is responsible for enforcing environmental regulations in the U.S.
USAID was perhaps most renowned for its many humanitarian programs, many of which targeted the world’s poorest countries. Less in the spotlight were its hundreds of programs in environment, energy and infrastructure.
In 2024, USAID allocated nearly half a billion dollars to climate-related programs. It has also partnered with other international and local organizations to help conserve biodiversity, equip countries with climate finance strategies, assist with disaster preparedness and relief, reduce pollution and much more.
So, where do these program cuts leave the rest of the world when it comes to environmental programs and meeting global climate goals?
Let’s start with the good news: not every environmentally-related USAID program is being cut.
One that seems set to continue is USAID’s work to clean up Agent Orange and other dioxins left in Vietnam ever since the Vietnam War. This program is still running at the time of writing, despite a one-week interruption in February.
The bad news: the leaked list of all cut programs is seemingly endless.
USAID is no longer involved in agricultural development and climate resilience programs in Nepal, nor in a partnership supporting Indigenous territorial and environmental management plans in Brazil.
The agency also worked with other implementing organizations, such as RTI International, a research non-profit that once received over USD 2 billion from USAID. Now they are laying off hundreds of staff and being forced to reduce the scope of their work.
NASA was another notable implementing partner of USAID, which used satellite data on weather events across SERVIR hubs to help communities make more informed climate decisions.
USAID has canceled its interagency agreements with NASA for joint SERVIR programs, according to a NASA spokesperson. This affects hubs across the U.S., as well as partner hubs in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The announcement comes only months after USAID announced the launch of the new SERVIR Central American hub at COP29 last November.
Also at COP29, USAID had committed USD 1 million to a low-carbon cooling initiative in India. It had also unveiled a USD 10.8 million plan to champion women as climate leaders, as well as a USD 41 million investment in blended finance vehicles. All of these plans are now in jeopardy.
In a press release, USAID had also announced its intention to support more early warning systems for natural disasters.
“By 2027, our efforts will enable an additional 200 million people with critical, life-saving flood warnings, bringing the total number of people supported to over 3 billion in 100 countries,” the agency wrote.
These cuts to preventive climate action and disaster relief are likely to trigger other humanitarian crises, such as displacement from natural disasters and consequent surges in climate migration.
In 2024, the U.S. contributed to nearly a tenth of total global climate finance.
As a result, the shuttering of USAID could have huge implications for the health of the planet and the ability for other countries to meet their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.
The U.S. has also withdrawn from the Paris Agreement once again, as it did during Trump’s first term. This time, it’s taking matters a step further by banning the word ‘climate’ from all U.S. federal agency websites.
But almost every single other country in the world is still part of the Paris Agreement, and for some, USAID was a major source of climate finance, enabling them to work towards their climate goals by reducing emissions.
“The U.S. provides over 10 percent of the world’s climate finance to countries in need. Halting this finance is not only morally wrong but also damages U.S. interests,” said Ani Dasgupta, president and CEO of the World Resources Institute, in a statement.
“It’s still too early to tell what the U.S. cuts will mean for reaching the USD 1.3 trillion climate finance target that developing countries need by 2035, but the gap will likely be harder to fill.”
At COP29, industrialized countries agreed to provide USD 300 billion in annual climate finance to their less affluent counterparts by 2035.
While that might sound like a lot, Global South countries had gone into the conference demanding USD 1.3 trillion, which is why the final agreement was met with widespread indignation.
Unfortunately, the U.S. isn’t the only country reducing aid in 2025.
France has announced plans to cut foreign aid by 37 percent, while the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium have all also made large cuts to their international aid budgets.
Meanwhile, when it came to submitting national climate goals, only 13 countries submitted their new NDCs on time.
This is the worrying state of play as countries gear up for COP30 in Brazil in November, where further discussions will address the progress of NDCs and the state of climate finance.
As powerful nations reduce their aid and climate finance commitments, the already watered-down global climate finance goal of USD 300 billion per year feels less achievable than ever.
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