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The United States has withdrawn from a major global solar energy alliance based in India as President Donald Trump moves to sharply scale back U.S. participation in international climate-related bodies.
Trump ordered the U.S. exit from the Gurugram-headquartered International Solar Alliance as part of a broader directive pulling the country out of 66 international organizations.
The White House said the groups were working “contrary to U.S. national interests.”
The International Solar Alliance, which promotes the use of solar energy to fight climate change, was caught up in a sweeping rollback targeting both UN and non-UN bodies with climate and environmental mandates.
Trump, who has previously called climate change a “hoax”, has repeatedly criticized such institutions.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said one of the reasons behind the move was what he described as “climate orthodoxy” that was working against “our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity”.
The International Solar Alliance was founded in 2015 by India and France and currently has 124 signatories, with about 100 full members.
Its main goal is to mobilize $1 trillion in investments for solar energy by 2030 and promote related technologies. The organization is led by Director-General Ashish Khanna.
Between 2022 and 2025, Washington contributed $2.1 million to the alliance, according to a U.S. government database. The funding was described as support “to support the U.S.-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership through ISA programs to accelerate the deployment of solar in developing and emerging countries”.
The ISA was not the only organization affected. The United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change, under which the Paris Climate Agreement was reached, was among 31 UN-linked entities targeted by the order. Other groups dealt with water, oceans, energy, and forest protection, including the UN program focused on reducing emissions from deforestation.
In addition, 35 non-UN organizations were included, nine of which work on climate change and environmental issues. Among them was the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was led by India’s Rajendra Pachauri when it received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
The U.S. had originally committed to joining the International Solar Alliance in 2016, during a White House meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then-President Barack Obama.
Photo: Screengrab

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