In the News, March 2025

Trump withdraws from Paris Agreement and WHO, suspends foreign aid

At the time of writing, Trump has just been inaugurated as the 47th US President. He wasted no time, signing a flurry of disturbing executive actions on his very first day.

One of his first moves was to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, the most important international climate treaty, which aims to limit global warming to less than 2°C (3.6°F) and to “pursue efforts” to limit the increase to 1.5°C (2.7°F). In his inaugural address, Trump repeated his intention to “drill, baby, drill,” and later in the day, he declared a “national energy emergency” — an action intended to boost the fossil fuel industry and distract from the real climate emergency.

Trump also began the process of leaving the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations agency that works to improve access to health care around the world and that directs the international response to health emergencies such as pandemics. WHO stands to lose around 15% of its funding as a result of US withdrawal. The processes for leaving the Paris Agreement and WHO each take a year to be finalized.

While Trump was widely expected to take these actions, he went even further, suspending all foreign aid for 90 days pending a review to determine whether disbursements are “aligned” with his foreign policy goals. At this time, it is not yet clear how much assistance will be affected as funding for many programs has already been appropriated by Congress.

2024 broke climate records

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record, with global average surface temperatures 1.55°C (2.79°F) higher than the 1850–1900 “pre-industrial” average. WMO estimates are based on six different datasets, including from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The WMO also confirmed that each of the past 10 years was one of the 10 warmest years on record, and that 2024 was likely the first full calendar year with a global mean temperature of more than 1.5°C of warming relative to the pre-industrial period. While not enough time has passed to confirm that we have definitively breached the critical 1.5°C Paris target, experts agree that this is looking increasingly inevitable and warn that every tenth of a degree of further warming increases the risk to life on our planet.

Meanwhile, the impacts of the climate crisis are escalating around the world, including in the United States, where record-breaking wildfires devastated parts of Southern California early this year.

Congressional Budget Office revises US population projections downward

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published new population projections in January, forecasting a national population size of 372 million in 2055. The population in 2054 is now projected to be 2.8% lower than CBO forecast in last year’s 30-year projection, due to lower expected fertility and immigration.

The CBO projections are still higher than the most recent ones from the US Census Bureau, published in 2023, which forecast a population size of 362 million in 2055 and a peak of 369 million in 2080. The CBO projections do not extend beyond 2055. Unlike the Census Bureau, CBO includes everyone who is eligible for Social Security, including US citizens living abroad, in its projections.

While Trump has vowed to slash immigration, the new CBO projections do not incorporate the potential effects of his administration’s actions.

Receipt of family planning services varies by age, race, education, and income

A report published by the CDC National Center for Health Statistics showed that from 2022 to 2023, only about a third of women of reproductive age (35.7%) had received family planning services, including birth control methods, checkups, or counseling, in the previous 12 months.

The report, based on survey data, also documents racial inequities, with close to 40% of white women having received family planning services compared to 35% of Black women and 32% of Hispanic women.

Supporting previous research, there was also a strong correlation for income and education, with receipt of family planning services increasing with household income and education level.

Ongoing reproductive rights restrictions, including state abortion bans, will make it even more difficult for low-income communities to access vital reproductive health services, including family planning.

Two sides of pronatalism: Japan and Russia

Governments in low-fertility countries around the world are trying to boost birth rates — whether it’s for socioeconomic or nationalistic reasons — and are taking vastly different approaches. Recently announced policies include the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s plan to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees, beginning in April. Japan’s fertility rate stands at just 1.2 births per woman, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare. The new policy is intended to help parents and prospective parents, especially women, balance work and childcare — Japan’s grueling work culture and patriarchal expectations currently make it very difficult for working women to raise a family.

Russia, on the other hand, is taking a more questionable approach, with several regional governments offering cash payments to female college students who deliver healthy babies. Putin has long been trying to increase Russia’s fertility rate (currently 1.5 births per woman), with increasingly worrying measures. He’s frequently called on women to resume traditional roles and have many children, and last November, he signed a bill into law banning “child-free propaganda.”

– Olivia Nater, onater@popconnect.org