US President Donald Trump has withdrawn the US from dozens of international organisations, including many that work to combat climate change.
Nearly half of the 66 affected bodies are UN-related, including the Framework Convention on Climate Change - a treaty that underpins all international efforts to combat global warming.
Groups working on development, gender equality, and conflict - areas the Trump administration had repeatedly dismissed as advancing globalist or woke agendas - are also included.
The White House said the decision was taken because those entities no longer serve American interests and promote ineffective or hostile agendas.
The memorandum was signed on Wednesday following a review, with the White House describing the organisations as a waste of taxpayer dollars.
These withdrawals will end American taxpayer funding and involvement in entities that advance globalist agendas over US priorities.
As well as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the US has also withdrawn from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - the world's leading authority on climate science that pulls together respected reports on the science of rising global temperatures.
Sources within the organization mentioned concerns about the potential impact of the Trump administration's withdrawal on US scientists involved in producing the body's upcoming studies.
Trump has previously removed funding from numerous multilateral organizations he disagrees with and has rejected the scientific consensus on climate change.
European leaders have criticized this latest decision, warning of weakened global cooperation, with EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra calling the US retreat regrettable and unfortunate.
While the US constitution allows presidents to join treaties with Senate approval, it does not clarify the withdrawal method, raising questions about whether a future president could easily re-enter these treaties.
