The U.S. Agency for International Development has been thrown into chaos as the Trump administration moved to freeze its operations, place agency leaders on administrative leave, and — apparently — attempt to transfer control to the State Department. The upheaval has left billions in federal aid hanging in the balance, including dozens of international climate and energy initiatives.
In President Donald Trump’s first week on the job, his administration froze all foreign assistance funded or funneled through USAID. The agency primarily distributes funding via grants and technical or policy support, and in fiscal year 2023 managed around $40 billion.
In an escalation from Trump’s first week, Elon Musk, the billionaire leading president Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, marked USAID for closure over the weekend, saying he plans to feed it “into a woodchipper.” He called the aid agency a “criminal organization” and said it’s “time for it to die.”
On Saturday, the agency’s website went dark without explanation, and on Monday Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he had taken over its control, citing insubordination by agency officials.
USAID has climate and energy projects situated all over the world. Unlike many domestic programs promoting clean technologies, USAID funding for such projects doesn’t stem from the Inflation Reduction Act — funds from which are in the midst of a 90-day pause. Instead, they depend on a variety of sources, including over $40 billion in Congressional appropriations, private sector investment the agency mobilizes, several international climate funds, and international partnerships.
These initiatives now in limbo include:
- The President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience, a program created by the Biden administration that is aimed at assisting emerging countries in adapting to climate change. According to USAID, nearly $61 million from that program was invested in adaptation and resiliency efforts in 2024.
- The Sustainable Investment Accelerator, USAID’s flagship initiative to increase investment in adaptation and mitigation efforts in emerging economies. SIA also aims to catalyze $2.5 billion in investment by 2030.
- The Climate Finance for Development Accelerator, a $250 million initiative designed to mobilize another $2.5 billion in public and private climate investments by 2030, focused on “scaling up the transition to an equitable and resilient net-zero economy.”
- The Scaling Up Renewable Energy initiative, which provides planning, procurement, and grid integration support to help countries transition to low-carbon economies.
- SERVIR, a joint project with NASA that used satellite imagery to deliver advanced warnings about extreme weather events.
In the fiscal year ending in September of last year, USAID and the State Department collaborated with 66 countries on climate engagement strategies, the agencies reported, including on global initiatives like the Global Methane Pledge, the Forest and Climate Leaders Partnership, and the Green Shipping Challenge.
In Trump’s crosshairs, again
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 makes a number of suggestions for the future of USAID, including ensuring that it “cease its war on fossil fuels in the developing world and support the responsible management of oil and gas reserves as the quickest way to end wrenching poverty and the need for open-ended foreign aid.”
But the agency has also faced broader, longer-standing criticism, particularly over its energy programs. In fact, this isn’t the first time its clean energy-related activities have come under Trump administration scrutiny.
In 2019, for instance, the USAID inspector general concluded that the agency’s multi-billion dollar Power Africa Initiative, which had the goal of adding 30,000 megawatts of clean generation capacity to grids in sub-Saharan Africa, “lacked portfolio-wide risk management and consistent measures of progress.”
The agency has received an outpouring of support from (mostly Democratic) lawmakers on the Hill in recent days. Last week, a group of lawmakers signed a letter expressing “deep concern” over the administration’s efforts to freeze USAID activity. Those efforts, the letter said, “have created a maelstrom of problems that have put our nation at risk and undermined American credibility around the globe.”
On Monday, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen criticized the attack on USAID from a podium in front of the agency’s shuttered offices, calling it “an absolute gift to our adversaries.”
That’s a theme the lawmakers elaborated on in their letter, requesting responses to questions that included whether the Trump administration anticipates that China “will use this opening to assert its priorities and fill the funding gap in countries where the United States has withdrawn its support.”
As to whether Trump can unilaterally shut down USAID and merge it with the State Department, the lawmakers answered with a resounding “no.”
“It is imperative that we maintain an independent development voice and capability within the U.S. government,” the letter said. “USAID is, by statute, an independent establishment outside of the State Department. Any proposal to modify that structure would require an Act of Congress.”
