“I withdrew from the unfair Paris Climate Accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars that other countries were not paying.”

The 'trillions' figure traces to a 2017 NERA Economic Consulting study commissioned by the American Council for Capital Formation. The London School of Economics' Grantham Research Institute found it modeled "the costs of attempting to achieve emissions reduction targets in some of the least cost-effective ways available," assumed other countries ignored their targets, and left out the benefits of avoided climate damage. The Paris Agreement itself imposes no such cost: each country writes its own pledge, meeting it "is not a legally binding obligation," and "There are no penalties for noncompliance." The administration's own withdrawal order cites no trillions figure; it objects instead that such agreements steer taxpayer dollars abroad.

What actually costs Americans billions is the warming the agreement exists to limit. NOAA counted 27 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the U.S. in 2024 alone, totaling $182.7 billion and killing at least 568 people, the fourth-costliest year on record. Since 1980, such disasters have cost the country over $2.9 trillion. C2ES, Paris Climate Agreement Q&A: "The achievement by a party of its NDCs is not a legally binding obligation."