The United States announced their release from UNESCO by 2026, reopening a chapter that seemed closed. After the return of 2023, the decision to resign the UN Agency for Education, Science and Culture represents a step backwards in multilateralism, while global challenges — from climate to energy, technology to culture — require more cooperation than ever. It is not just a political choice: is a statement on the new meaning of “independence”, which today is measured not in the borders, but in the ability to manage energy, resources and narratives.
In the interconnected world of the 21st century, every form of independence is relative. Yet, in reaffirming its autonomy from multilateral institutions, the United States is investing billions to drive global energy transition. With the Inflation Reduction Act, approved in August 2022, Washington launched the largest green investment program in its history, with hundreds of billion dollars for renewable energy, clean technologies and emissions reduction. It is a strategy that has already attracted the interest of European partners and global companies, but its future is not obvious: American political evolution could reshape its priorities and tools. It remains, however, the signal of a country that has chosen to measure its leadership even in the energy transition — a paradox only apparent, if it is considered that, while retreating from UNESCO strengthens its international presence through energy diplomacy. It is an obvious contrast, if we think that UNESCO is not only culture, but also science, education and sustainable development — areas where the United States continues to exert influence.
The link between culture and sustainability clearly emerges in the twenty-six American sites recognised as World Heritage Sites. The Independence Hall of Philadelphia, a symbol of political freedom, is today also a laboratory of energy efficiency with low consumption heating systems and intelligent resource management. In New York, the Statue of Liberty shines with LED lights with reduced environmental impact, while the new Statue of Liberty Museum, inaugurated in 2019 on the island of Liberty Island, was designed according to strict criteria of energy efficiency and climate resilience. The LEED Gold building uses solar panels, recycled materials and natural ventilation systems: an architecture that combines memory and sustainability, giving new form to the universal message of freedom. In the South-West landscapes, in Mesa Verde and Chaco Culture, solar micronets and off-grid systems feed visitor centers, ensuring energy autonomy in remote areas. These places, icons of American history, thus become symbols of a freedom that today translates into the ability to innovate without interrupting dialogue with nature.
However, the release from UNESCO does not stop the international projection of the United States. Since the Second World War, American energy policy has acted as a parallel diplomacy, through economic, technological, scientific and energy security agreements with Europe, Italy and many partners in the world. It is a form of influence that not only passes by cultural symbols, but by energy flows, investments and infrastructures that support them. In the contemporary world, energy and culture are two languages of power: both build bonds, shape perceptions and define the rules of a changing global order. In a time when energy and climate redesign relations between states, the new American retreat from UNESCO reopens a fracture never completely healed in the multilateral system. The great inalienable heritage landscapes of humanity — from Yellowstone National Park to Grand Canyon, from the architectures of Frank Lloyd Wright to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park — tell a country that continues to seek a balance between energy leadership and global responsibility, between the desire to drive and the need to remain part of an international community. The challenge, for all, will be to find — beyond borders — a new grammar of cooperation.
L’articolo The United States leaves UNESCO: the paradox of a world energy power comes from IlNewyorkese.
