President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement on Monday, once again placing the world's top historic emitter of greenhouse gases outside the global pact aimed at pushing nations to tackle climate change.

The president signed an executive order that raises questions about the timing of his planned exit from the global climate deal.

President Donald Trump will order the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, the White House said on Monday, once again placing the world's top historic emitter of greenhouse gas emissions outside of the global pact aimed at pushing nations to tackle climate change through domestic actions.

The United States will be one of only four countries outside the Paris Agreement, which is designed to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

After previously blaming it for mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic, President Trump is pulling the U.S. from the World Health Organization.

U.S. withdrawal from the world's primary climate pact will have a bigger impact - in the U.S. and globally - than the country's first retreat in 2017, analysts and diplomats told Reuters. One of President Donald Trump's first acts on returning to office on Monday was to quit the Paris Agreement as part of his plans to halt U.

Quitting the Paris Agreement triggers a cascade of real-world impacts and signals the beginning of an aggressive agenda to undo U.S. climate policy.