David M. Lodge

Director of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability

David Lodge, director of the Cornell Atkinson Center For Sustainability at Cornell University, says this will hurt U.S. influence.

Lodge says:

“The U.S. withdrawal from multilateral organizations like the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is a self-inflicted reduction in U.S. influence on many issues that affect the welfare of U.S. citizens.

“Rather than lose all influence over input and deliberations, it would be better for the U.S. economy and environment to assure that delegations of U.S. scientists are bringing the best, most impartial expertise to the international table. Less input from the U.S. and less expert information flowing to the U.S. from other countries can only make U.S. policy decisions less informed and less robust.”

Natalie Mahowald

Irving Porter Church Professor of Engineering, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; Reducing Climate Risk Working Group co-leader for the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability

Natalie Mahowald is a professor of engineering at Cornell and an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change author. IPCC is one of the organizations from which the Trump administration plans to withdraw.

Mahowald says:

“It is unfortunate that the U.S. is withdrawing from the IPCC. The IPCC is a scientific advisory panel on climate change and assesses the state of the science on climate change. This effort represents experts across the world. Having the U.S. withdraw means that the U.S. is no longer engaging in the top scientific efforts in the world and represents a step back for climate change efforts and U.S. science.”

Rachel Bezner Kerr

Professor, Department of Global Development

Rachel Bezner Kerr is the director of the Institute for African Development at Cornell and also an IPCC author.

Kerr says:

"The decision by the federal government to pull out of the IPCC and the UNFCC is extremely shortsighted and puts Americans – as well as others – at much greater risk.

"Everyone is affected by climate change. As one example, in the last few years, Americans have experienced deadly consequences from severe floods, wildfires and heat waves and paid high costs from these events. Scientists in the IPCC volunteer for several years to provide policy relevant information for policy makers to take action to reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. The United States is losing their role as a scientific leader by pulling out of this high-level scientific body."

John Tobin

Professor of Practice at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

John Tobin is a professor of practice at Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business and expert in corporate global sustainability.

"This action represents a self-inflicted wound:by leaving these bodies, the United States forfeits its ability to shape agendas that will continue to influence the country’s core national interests, including on trade, security, climate change, nature, water, and critical commodities.

"The work of these organizations will not stop—although U.S. leverage will—ceding advantage to countries with geopolitical interests and values very different from those of the United States. This decision is not an assertion of national sovereignty—it is abdication.”