The Trump administration on Friday officially told the United Nations that the US intends to pull out of the 2015 Paris climate pact.
But the State Department’s announcement doesn’t formally start the process of the US getting out of the voluntary agreement.
The department described its communication as a “strong message” to the world, following President Donald Trump’s decision in June to leave the accord.
“The State Department is telling the UN what the president already told the world on June 1 and it has no legal effect,” said Nigel Purvis, who directed US climate diplomacy during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.
Purvis said countries can’t withdraw from new international agreements, including the Paris climate one, until three years after they go into effect. The Paris agreement went into effect on November 4, 2016. Then the process takes a year.
The State Department cited the same timeline, saying it can officially start withdrawing as soon as November 2019. That means the earliest the US can be out of the climate agreement is November 4, 2020 – the day after the next presidential election.