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Donald Trump’s new A US presidential term poses a serious threat to the planet if he derails international efforts to curb dangerous global warming, shocked climate experts warned after his decisive election victory.
It is widely expected that Trump’s return to the White House could lead the United States to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement again and remove its involvement in the United Nations framework for dealing with the climate crisis.
During his presidential campaign, Trump called climate change a “big hoax,” despised wind energy and electric vehicles, and pledged to root out “green new hoaxes” and environmental rules in the Inflation Reduction Act, a major bill that Democrats passed to support. I made a promise. Clean energy project.
Analysts say Trump’s agenda risks adding billions of tons of additional heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere, further jeopardizing the government’s already unmet goal of preventing catastrophic global warming. Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, said the United States is now a “failed democracy” and “we now pose a major threat to the planet.”
The election results will send shock waves through the annual UN climate talks, which begin in Azerbaijan on Monday. “It is extremely dangerous for the world for a climate denier to be elected president of the United States,” said Bill Hare, senior scientist at Climate Analytics, adding that the Trump administration is “going through a damaging effort to prevent the world from warming for another decade.” ” he warned. The Paris target of 2.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels now appears even more out of reach.
Joe Biden’s administration is scheduled to send a delegation to the Cop29 summit next week, but this will be overshadowed by the incoming Trump administration, which is threatening to cut ties with other major carbon emitters such as China to address the climate crisis. “The nation and the world can expect the incoming Trump administration to deliver a major blow to global climate diplomacy,” said Rachel Cleetus, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Climate activists and politicians across Europe who support stronger measures to reduce pollution reacted with despair to news of Trump’s victory. “This is a dark day for America and the world,” said Thomas Weitz, an Austrian lawmaker and co-chair of the European Green Party.
Fridays for Future German climate activist Luisa Neubauer, who knocked on Harris’ door, compared the feeling to a bad breakup. “Decisions were made about the immediate future, but most of us had no say in them,” she said. “And for a moment it felt like the world was ending. That’s not true. But heartache is real.”
“No matter what Trump says, the transition to clean energy cannot be stopped and our country cannot be reversed.”
But they also urged climate action supporters not to give up.
Arriba Hamid, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, said it was “an election won by corporate money, big-pollution advocates and disinformation”, but a global movement was already fighting to curb the damage.
“We have no more time to waste,” she added. “No matter what President Trump chooses about global climate action, we know that the damage can be contained if the adults in the room speak up.”
When he was last president, Trump took months to decide to remove the United States from the Paris Agreement, sparking concerns that the agreement would collapse. The countries could have avoided that fate before Biden rejoined the deal, and there is optimism that the transition to clean energy is not Trump’s job, despite calls for the United States to “train, baby drill” on oil and gas. , it is reversible.
“The US election result is a setback for global climate action, but the Paris Agreement is resilient and stronger than the policies of any single country,” said Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and a key architect of the Paris Agreement. “It has been proven that it does.”
“The situation now is very different from 2016,” she said. “There is strong economic momentum behind the global transformation led and enabled by the United States, but it now risks being lost. “The devastating effects of recent hurricanes have been a grim reminder that every American is being affected by worsening climate change.”
As after previous withdrawals, cities and states in the U.S. committed to climate action will try to make up for federal indifference, serve as de facto representatives at global summits and even collaborate with other countries on ways to reduce emissions. no see.
“No matter what Trump says, the transition to clean energy cannot be stopped and our country cannot be reversed.” said Gina McCarthy, Biden’s former climate adviser and co-chair of the America Is All In coalition of states and states on climate. city.
“Our coalition is bigger, more bipartisan, better organized and ready to deliver climate solutions, boost local economies and advance our climate ambitions,” she said. “We cannot and will not let Trump stand in the way of giving our children and grandchildren the freedom to grow up in safer, healthier communities.”
Domestic environmental groups say they will try to rally Democrats and some Republicans to oppose President Trump’s rollback of climate policies. This is expected to include deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and weakening pollution rules for coal-fired power plants, automobiles and automobiles. and fossil fuel drilling. “If President Trump tries to take away clean energy incentives now, he will face a wall of bipartisan opposition,” said Dan Lashof, director of the World Resources Institute.
But Trump’s election victory was a huge wake-up call for those concerned about the climate crisis. The issue has barely been championed by Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, and polls show voters are reluctant to address it despite record temperatures and warnings from scientists about two devastating heat-fueled hurricanes that struck the Southeast just weeks ago. It turns out that the problem was considered a minor priority. Election Day.
“This is a wake-up call. The climate movement urgently needs more political power because the climate crisis is moving much faster than our politics right now,” said Nathaniel Stinnett, founder of the Environmental Voter Project. The vote of American environmental activists.
“Time is running out, so we must work every day to build an unstoppable group of climate voters.”
