The State Department fires remaining employees who worked on climate change
The State Department on Friday fired the remaining staff working in the office responsible for international climate policy, including annual U.N. negotiations related to climate treaties, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Most of the staff in the Office of Global Change had left voluntarily after President Donald Trump took office and moved rapidly to pull the United States out of international climate talks. Nearly a dozen people who remained on staff were fired Friday, and the office will be shuttered as part of the wider downsizing of the department, the people familiar with the firings said.
In response to a request for comment, the State Department confirmed in a statement that nearly 3,000 employees will be let go. The department did not address questions on the elimination of the Office of Global Change.
“The Department is undertaking a significant and historic reorganization to better align our workforce activities, and programs with the America First foreign policy priorities,” the statement said.
Follow Trump’s second term
The statement added that many of the offices being eliminated had strayed from their purposes, were outdated or redundant.
Firing the staff of the Office of Global Change, many of whom worked under both Democratic and Republicans administrations, leaves the State Department without employees who are knowledgeable about global climate negotiations, said Alden Meyer, a senior associate specializing in climate diplomacy at the think tank E3G.
“Without the office in place, there’s not a focal point for the organization of U.S. climate diplomacy, but that seems to be the point, right? To not have the U.S. engaging in climate diplomacy seems to be the policy goal of the administration,” Meyer said.
On the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order pulling the United States out of the Paris agreement on climate change, the primary global pact to curtail planet-warming emissions, having similarly withdrawn the U.S. in his first administration. The U.S. did not send officials to climate talks in Germany last month.
“The U.S. has sort of vacated the room” on international climate talks, Meyer said.
Dan Reifsnyder, who served as the office’s director from its creation in 1989 until 2006, said it was unclear who would be able to fill the U.S. leadership role on climate change. China, which in climate talks is considered a developing country, does not contribute financing to international climate action as developed nations do.
“U.S. leadership in the world is just so critical. To not have one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases — but more importantly one of the key crucibles of technology and innovation and new approaches to dealing with issues like this — participating is just a massive loss to the world, a massive loss to the issue,” Reifsnyder said.
He said that Americans concerned about climate change need to prepare for what comes after Trump.
“He will eventually leave. And at that point we have an opportunity to remake, to redo, to reset,” Reifsnyder said. “How can we repair the damage, and how can we set a new agenda?”