America First in a Warming World: Climate Retrenchment, Global Leadership and India’s Green Transition in Comparative Perspective

Second withdrawal by the United States from the Paris Agreement under the ‘America First’ doctrine of the Trump administration: A comparative perspective with India’s fast pace of renewable energy transition. On the basis of recent work in policy studies and developments from 2024 to 2026, this paper seeks to show how recent American climate retrenchment does not substantially slow down the larger momentum of global decarbonisation but rather leads to an acceleration of the movement of the gravitational center of international climate governance such that there is increased room for India to take on a stronger role. This paper situates this realignment from the lens of comparative American Studies contexts, considers the phenomenon of US climate disengagement not only as a domestic policy decision but also as an ecocultural-political text that comments upon, challenges, and transforms ideas of climate responsibility, political credibility, and international leadership at a global level. It then goes on to consider how India engages with the emerging global context through its own exceptionalism rooted in postcolonial developmental concerns, climate justice, historic responsibility, energy security, and the right to economic growth.