Berlin Forum on Global Cooperation 2025 - Keynote Adam Tooze

Keynote "Sustainable development and the crisis of US hegemony"
Prof. Adam Tooze, Historian, Commentator, Editor of magazine "Surplus"

Economic historian Adam Tooze discusses the implications of the U.S. withdrawal from the 2030 Agenda, and what this means for Europe and multilateralism going forward.

In the early days of the Trump administration, on 4 March 2025, the US representative declared during a supposedly routine vote at the United Nations General Assembly: ‘The United States strongly opposes the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals.’
By withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and rejecting the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, the USA is not only calling into question the consensus on international development and cooperation that has grown since the 1970s - it is also denying the integration of environmental aspects, such as climate protection, into the development discourse. This discourse experienced its breakthrough with the UN conference in Rio in 1992 and its groundbreaking agreements and has characterised international cooperation ever since.

How can the current moment be placed in this historical context? What significance does it have - especially for Europe, which has played a key role in shaping the sustainable development agenda from the outset? And how should Europe, and Germany in particular, as the continent's most important economic power, respond to these challenges - especially in its relationship with the Global South?