US climate official says fight against climate crisis won’t end under Trump | Cop29

U.S. climate envoy John Podesta said the fight “for a cleaner, safer” planet will not stop under a re-elected Donald Trump, even if some progress is reversed, as he spoke Monday at the Cop29 U.N. climate talks, which took place on Monday opened Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan.

“Although the federal government under the leadership of Donald Trump has pushed climate-related actions to the backburner, efforts to prevent climate change remain a U.S. commitment and will confidently continue,” said Podesta, who led the Biden administration’s delegation to the annual meeting leads conversations.

Trump has promised to deregulate the energy sector, allow the oil and gas industry to “drill, baby, drill” and withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, which requires countries to take action to address the worst impacts of the crisis avoid. But while Trump will try to reverse progress, “this is not the end of our fight for a cleaner, safer planet,” Podesta said.

Trump’s re-election to the White House last week, which will see him sworn in for a second term in January, has cast a shadow over the UN talks after the Republican defeated Kamala Harris. Harris was expected to continue the climate policies of Joe Biden, who passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest down payment on the green transition in U.S. history.

Experts say Trump’s second term could be even more destructive because he will be backed by a comfortably conservative judiciary and armed with detailed policy plans like the Project 2025 document published by the right-wing Heritage Foundation.

Trump’s new administration is reportedly already preparing executive orders to scrap climate policies and free up protected areas for expanding oil and gas production. “We have more liquid gold than any other country in the world,” the president-elect said Wednesday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employees who were targeted the last time Trump was president are already preparing for a mass exodus. Much of the work done by the EPA under Biden, such as pollution rules for cars and power plants and efforts to protect vulnerable communities living near industrial operations, will be reversed.

A June analysis warned that Trump’s impending setbacks could lead to an additional 4 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere through 2030 compared to continuing Biden’s policies. That “would be a death sentence for our planet,” Jamie Minden, the 21-year-old acting executive director of Zero Hour, the youth-led climate change nonprofit based in the United States, said at a news conference about the Baku election results on Monday.

Trump’s impending presidency could also put a damper on other countries’ climate action plans, said Todd Stern, who was the U.S. special envoy for climate change and the United States’ chief negotiator at the 2015 Paris climate agreement – particularly China, which is currently the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions .

“The two biggest players in the ring are the US and China, and China is very aware of this. “You just got a guarantee that the US president will not bring up climate change for the next four years, and that means something,” he said. “It will make things easier for China, and that can’t help but have some impact.”

But “the fight is bigger than an election, a political cycle in a country,” Podesta said. The UN climate conference in Baku is a “crucial opportunity to consolidate our progress,” he said.

At Cop29, activists are urging the Biden administration to unveil an ambitious climate plan under the Paris Climate Agreement – known as Nationally Determined Contribution – and make big pledges to support global climate finance efforts.

And the president “still has critical opportunities to cement his climate legacy” at the national level, said Allie Rosenbluth, co-manager of the climate NGO Oil Change International, including by rejecting pending permits for fossil fuel projects.

At least $1 trillion is needed to help poor countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, transition to a low-carbon economy and adapt to the impacts of climate disasters. If the U.S. fails to make a meaningful contribution, other countries can also fill the climate finance gap left by the U.S., noted Teresa Anderson, director of global climate justice at the climate nonprofit ActionAid, at another news conference Monday.

“This is a test for rich countries,” she said. “If they believe in the climate emergency, they should be prepared to pay more than their fair share, not less.”

US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a climate hawk who will join Cop29 later this week, said Trump and other US Republicans were aiming “a torpedo” at climate progress but pressure to cut US emissions , will stay strong.

“I am traveling to Baku to reassure the international community that much of the United States remains committed to saving the planet from climate catastrophe, a catastrophe that is already causing massive economic damage and driving down prices for insurance, food, and more goods and services,” he wrote in an email.

Tina Stege, climate chief for the Marshall Islands, noted that the Paris Agreement has 195 signatories and “will not collapse in the face of a single election result.”

“The Paris Agreement has survived one Trump presidency and will survive another,” she said.