Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Javier Milei’s government is weighing up a proposal for Argentina to leave the Paris agreement, days after Donald Trump announced the US would exit the world’s key accord on climate change.
While a final decision has yet to be made, two people familiar with the discussions said Argentina was likely to follow in the US’s footsteps, a move that would make it just the second country to quit the agreement signed by almost 200 nations.
Senior officials are studying an internal memo recommending an exit, said people briefed on the situation, after the country withdrew negotiators from last year’s COP29 climate summit and said it was re-evaluating its international commitments on the environment.
Civil servants were seeking to dissuade Milei’s team from leaving the agreement, the people said. One Argentine diplomat said Milei would make the final decision and that “it seems very likely that we will end up leaving”.
A departure, if agreed, would mark a major blow to global efforts to address climate change. The agreement aims to limit global temperature rises to well below 2C and ideally to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
The environmental division of Argentina’s interior ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The libertarian leader, who denies that humans are a cause of climate change, on Thursday condemned the global environmental movement in a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“Wokeism has perverted the basic idea of preserving the environment for the enjoyment of human beings, and turned it into a fanatical environmentalism where human beings are a cancer that must be eliminated, and economic development is little less than a crime against nature,” he said.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order to pull the US from the Paris agreement for a second time, having previously left during his first term. No other country has left the 2015 accord.
Exiting the Paris agreement would require congressional approval in Argentina, but Milei has often bypassed congress via emergency decrees during his presidency.
Last year was the hottest on record, with scientists saying the world is increasingly off track to meet the temperature goals set out in the accord.
A withdrawal could affect the EU-Mercosur trade agreement concluded in December between Europe and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, which specifies that parties can suspend the trade deal if one of the signatories leaves the Paris accord.
A diplomat said: “The technical staff in the ministry are trying to explain that while Trump can do what he wants, for Argentina it would bring consequences.”
They also cited potential complications for Argentina’s recently launched bid to join the OECD, which advocates environmental policy standards for members.
Critics have argued that Argentina would also risk losing access to climate-linked international financing streams, after receiving billions in such funding, and could be excluded from global carbon markets in future.
Countries are due to submit updated climate plans next month under the Paris accord, although many are expected to miss the deadline.
