In his first office day, President Trump signed a slew of executive orders that would set the United States on a very different environmental path from Biden administration. The executive orders and memoranda take the first steps to fulfill many of Trump’s promises from the campaign trail: US withdrawal from Paris Agreementdrilling for more oil and natural gas, and repealing many of the Biden-era environmental directives and departments.

While Trump’s day-one executive orders are far from over, it’s not yet clear how they will be implemented or how quickly they will be felt. The executive orders government agencies how to implement the law, but they can be challenged in courts if they are found to violate the US Constitution or other laws, as happened with Trump’s travel executive order in January 2017.

Trump’s executive orders, however, send a clear signal about his administration’s environmental priorities: Get more fossil fuels, weaken support for green energyand moving away from global climate leadership.

Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

This executive order directs the US Ambassador to United Nations to submit a formal notification that the US has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Paris Agreement, signed in 2016, commits countries to reduce greenhouse emissions and submit a five-year update of their climate plans to achieve the agreed emission reduction goals.

In his first term, Trump also withdrew the US from the Paris Agreementalthough the terms of the agreement mean that the withdrawal does not take place until November 2020. In one of his first acts as president, Joe Biden has the US join the Paris Agreement. It will take at least a year for the US to leave the Agreement.

“This short-sighted move shows a disregard for science and the well-being of people around the world, including Americans, who loss of their homeslivelihoods, and loved ones as a result of climate change,” said Jonathan Foley, executive director of the climate charity Project Drawdown.

The executive order also rescinds the US International Climate Finance Plan—a Biden administration increase in international climate finance that will reach more than $11 billion annually by 2024. will suffer the most,” said Bob Ward, director on policy at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Environmental Climate Change.

Encouraging Fossil Fuel Extraction

President Trump has dedicated three executive orders to accelerate the exploitation of the US’s vast fossil fuel reserves. On the campaign trail Trump often promised to “drill, baby, drill” and on his first day as president he reinforced this sloganeering with orders to remove Biden-era regulations and rules on environment that prevents the exploration of fossil fuels.

An executive order focused specifically on Alaska, which has large fossil fuel reserves and is the location of Willow—a controversial oil and gas project approved by the Biden in 2023. Trump’s executive order opens the door to other projects, calls on the US to “accelerate the permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects” in Alaska and the repeal of any regulations that passed by the Biden administration that could hinder this goal. It also specifically revoked the cancellation of leases within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and revoked an order from the Secretary of the Interior that temporarily halted oil and gas leasing in the Refuge.