CHENNAI: Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House is being viewed by climate activists as a huge blow to the efforts to address the climate crisis. With time running out to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, a significant amount of commitment is required from all major industrialised nations. The US, being the world’s largest economy and the highest carbon emitter, is duty-bound to lead in climate action.
But it has elected a president who is an ardent advocate of fossil fuels and thinks the climate crisis is a scam. During his first term as president, the US became the first country to formally withdraw from the Paris Accords. A New York Times analysis showed Trump rolled back 112 environment rules during his first term — at least 30 of them related to air pollution and carbon emissions.
Almost four years have passed since Trump left the White House after his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Biden put the US back in the Paris Accords and reversed some of Trump’s policies. In the meantime, the world inched closer to hitting the 1.5°C threshold. Today, there is greater urgency for stronger climate measures than when Trump first took office in 2017.
Trump’s next term is unlikely to be any different on the climate front. He has vowed to roll back Biden’s environmental protection measures and again withdraw from the Paris Accords. Many of his cabinet picks are known climate change deniers. Pete Hegseth, his nominee for defence secretary, believes climate change is a hoax. Sean Duffy, picked to lead the transportation department, told Fox News: “We don’t have a global warming problem. … It’s not global warming because, at certain points, it starts to cool a little bit.”
Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to lead the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), is another well-known climate denier. During his tenure in Congress, Zeldin had voted against important climate legislation. “He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards,” Trump said announcing his appointment. During his first term, Trump had used the EPA to roll back many of the Obama-era regulations meant to tackle climate change.
Another controversial pick is Chris Wright, CEO of fracking company Liberty Energy, to lead the Energy Department. If you were to ask Wright about the climate crisis, he would probably say there is no such thing. He appears to think of global warming as a blessing, saying it has saved the world many cold-related deaths. “But global temperature rise is — by itself — not the concern. In fact, millions of lives have been saved by reducing cold-related deaths,” he said during a hearing at the US House of Representatives.
Trump’s pick for interior secretary is Doug Burgum, who, unlike others, does not deny that the world is facing a climate crisis, but remains a strong supporter of the fossil fuel industry. The Guardian called him a “moderate” compared to other cabinet picks. During Trump’s first term, the Interior Department opened up millions of acres of federal lands in the US to fossil fuel extraction. Now, Trump has given Burgum one directive for the half-a-billion acres of land under the department’s control: drill.
Trump 1.0 made the world poorer in its fight against climate change. As Trump 2.0 takes shape, one thing is becoming clear: It isn’t going to be any better.