On June 1, President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.

A landmark international effort, the agreement was adopted in December 2015 and brings together nations to collectively combat climate change and collaborate on innovative strategies that help counties, particularly developing nations, adapt to its impacts.

This unprecedented agreement places strong emphasis on using forests as a climate change solution, both to capture carbon emissions and to protect our communities.

American Forests President & CEO Scott Steen provided an official statement:

We are deeply dismayed by the decision by the Administration to exit the Paris Climate Agreement. This agreement is scientifically sound, flexible in application, and includes explicit recognition that planting and restoring forests must be part of each nation’s climate change actions.

Forests slow the progress of climate change by capturing and storing carbon emissions and protect us from climate change impacts like heat waves and drought. Supporters of American Forests have invested in protecting and restoring forests, knowing that forests offer important climate solutions as one of many benefits.

In light of this abdication of climate change leadership by the Trump Administration, American Forests will join the many states, cities, corporations, and non-profit organizations ready to fill this gap. Specifically, we will redouble American Forests’ efforts to plant trees and improve forest health so our forests can capture even more carbon emissions and slow climate change. We will also increase American Forests’ efforts to position trees and forests as a vital tool in climate protection, from expanding tree canopy to shade our homes in cities and towns to restoring wildland forests that collect and filter our drinking water supplies and provide homes for climate-vulnerable wildlife.

Given the uncertain federal leadership, the work of American Forests has never been more urgent to assure that climate change progress does not suffer. Please join our efforts to make trees and forests part of the climate change solution.