New Delhi, Jan. 13 -- What does the US withdrawal from 66 international organizations, especially the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), mean for the already half-hearted multilateral efforts to tackle one of our biggest ever problems? Very simply, the glacial pace of progress in tackling climate change is likely to slow down further.

The US has now pulled out from all major initiatives to keep the planet we inhabit from warming too much. Sure, the US had given notice of its exit from the Paris agreement of 2015-due to come into effect later this month-soon after its President Donald Trump took office last January. So the fact that the country has turned its back on the UNFCCC, under whose aegis global talks ...