Monday, 23 December 2024
Monday, 23 December 2024
The fight against human-induced global warming could suffer more damage with Donald Trump, a famous climate-change denier, as US President, environmental experts said on Wednesday.
“One can only hope that Donald Trump will put conspiracy theories to the side and take the decisive action to address the climate crisis that the American people deserve,” Dan Lashof, US director of the World Resources Institute said in a statement.
The WRI is a nonprofit set up by the MacArthur Foundation in the US in 1982.
Lashof's statement was as much about defiance as about disappointment.
“There is no denying that another Trump presidency will stall national efforts to tackle the climate crisis and protect the environment, but most US state, local, and private sector leaders are committed to charging ahead. And you can count on a chorus of world leaders confirming that they won’t turn their back on climate and nature goals,” he said.
“Donald Trump heading back to the White House won’t be a death knell to the clean energy transition that has rapidly picked up pace these last four years. Both Republican-led and Democratic-led states are seeing the benefits of wind, solar, and battery manufacturing and deployment thanks to the billions of dollars of investments unleashed by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Governors and representatives in Congress on both sides of the aisle have come to recognize that clean energy is a huge moneymaker and a job creator. President Trump will face a bipartisan wall of opposition if he attempts to rip away clean energy incentives now,” he added.
Americans, he said, are reeling from devastating climate-fueled disasters across the country.
“Turning a blind eye to the climate crisis that is costing billions of dollars in damage and killing hundreds of people would be irresponsible and immoral,” Lashof said.
“Trump has every reason to build on transformations already underway. Electrifying buildings and transportation — including school buses — benefits rural and urban communities alike by cutting costs and improving efficiency. At the same time, America’s croplands, wetlands and forests desperately need more investments to protect them from intensifying wildfires, droughts and flooding.”
He also said: “Global support for addressing the climate crisis has grown significantly since Donald Trump first took office. Country leaders know that reducing emissions and supercharging clean energy growth strengthens their economies and competitiveness. That’s why China has invested heavily in wind, solar and battery manufacturing at home, and supply chains and markets abroad. If Donald Trump pulls out of the Paris Agreement again, it would simply diminish the United States’ influence and give other countries a leg up in the booming clean energy economy.”
A victory for Donald Trump could lead to an additional 4bn tonnes of US emissions by 2030 compared with Joe Biden’s plans, the UK-based environmental publication Carbon Brief had said in an analysis before the results of the US presidential elections were declared.
This, Carbon Brief has said, would cause global climate damages worth more than $900 billion.
“Drill, baby, drill” was a key Donald Trump slogan during his campaign where he supported increasing oil and gas production.
And under Trump’s presidency, the US was the first nation to withdraw from the Paris treaty when he announced his decision in June 2017.
Joe Biden signed the treaty and brought back the US into the Paris Agreement on the first day he joined office.
Trump has said he would pull out of the Paris agreement again. There are concerns Trump would also consider withdrawing the US from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Helen Clarkson, CEO of international non-profit Climate Group, said fighting climate change, financing the transition and taking action to reduce emissions have just become a “vastly bigger challenge, which will be felt at COP29 and in the years to come”.
This outcome in the US, just after two devastating hurricanes affected the southern parts of the country, is in line with a trend of climate scepticism throughout the past election year, she said.
“It means we have to look for leadership elsewhere. Corporates and states and regions, including in the US, are already leading the way on climate action,” Clarkson said.
The US is the top fossil fuel producer and carbon emitter, according to experts.
Harjeet Singh, climate activist and Global Engagement Director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, said Trump’s victory is an alarming escalation of climate risk for the world’s most vulnerable communities.
“The US, as a nation, has an urgent duty to lead -- not undermine -- global efforts. It is time for states, the public and companies committed to protecting the planet to intensify their domestic actions and show true solidarity with the developing world, which is confronting the climate crisis,” Singh said.
“With COP29 talks starting in Baku next week and aiming to secure an ambitious new climate finance goal, this news makes the already challenging path to consensus even steeper and more uncertain. By stepping back from climate commitments, Trump’s actions threaten to erode trust in a global system already strained by the indifference and inaction of wealthy nations.” Singh said.
Sunita Narain, director general of Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment, affirmed that Trump winning the White House race is a “big setback” for global climate efforts, especially if he rolls back critical domestic policies like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
She said the US has fallen short of global climate efforts, on financing support for vulnerable countries, decarbonisation and financial commitments to the developing world, and Trump’s presidency will make matters even worse.
“The IRA is crucial because the United States remains the single-largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases and the second-largest emitter annually. It is also the world’s top producer and exporter of oil and gas, generating around 13 million barrels daily. The IRA (and its role in achieving 50-per cent emissions reduction by 2030, below 2005 levels) served as a significant signal to the world that the US could lead on climate action,” Narain said.
Congress leader and former environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said Donald Trump’s comeback has made the future of the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change which America had rejoined under President Joe Biden “extremely shaky” and added that if the US were to withdraw again, it would be disastrous.
“…what is certain is that the future of the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change which America had rejoined under President Biden is now extremely shaky. If the US were to withdraw again it would be disastrous,” the former environment minister said.
The Trump administration, during its earlier tenure, had already upended regulations and lifted bans on oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and parts of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, in coastal waters around the US, and in areas formerly protected as National Monuments in Utah, according to a report by the Brookings Institution.
In 2023 alone, the US suffered a record 28 climate and weather-related disasters and each caused more than $1 billion in damage.
