Amara Omeokwe

Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Rio Earth Summit.

It was the first global treaty to explicitly address climate change, with the goal of stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions to prevent dangerous human interference in the climate.

After unanimous Senate approval, the U.S.

became the first industrialized nation to ratify the treaty.

Few would call Bush a climate leader.

He built his fortune in the Texas oil industry and resisted setting targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But the framework he helped negotiate set the table for global cooperation and eventually led to the landmark Paris Agreement.

The Framework Convention on Climate Change is the foundational climate treaty for the world.

Every nation is a part of it.

Joanna Lewis is a professor of energy and environment at Georgetown University.

And while it serves to organize important international negotiations, it actually doesn't itself bind countries to anything.

Lewis has attended many of these negotiations as an observer.

She says for three and a half decades through Republican and Democratic administrations, the United States has played an influential role.

And ultimately, the United States has very little to lose in being a part of the Framework Convention, but potentially a lot to gain in terms of influencing the international response to climate change.

And pulling out opens the door for other countries to fill the vacuum, including China, which has made huge investments in solar energy and electric vehicles.

U.N.

Climate Chief Simon Steele called Trump's decision a colossal own goal that will only hurt the U.S.

in the form of more costly disasters and less affordable food, energy, and insurance.

Some worry that U.S.

withdrawal will prompt other countries to reduce their participation.