“A hard blow”, “a dark day for the climate”, “the greatest civilizational and climatic setback on our planet”… Climate observers did not hide their deep concern on Wednesday, November 6, at the end of the American presidential election which saw Donald Trump win.
But a few days from the next and 29e world climate conference (COP29), which will open in Azerbaijan on November 11, everyone tried to cling to one hope: the Republican will not be able to stop an ecological transition well underway in the United States as in other countries of the world. The 78-year-old billionaire nevertheless risks derailing American policy in this area as well as the global fight against global warming.
The action of the United States, the largest historical polluter, the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world and the largest producer of oil, is proving decisive, while the window for hoping to meet the objectives of the Paris climate agreement is closing. With a second term for Donald Trump, “Stabilization of warming below 1.5°C will probably become impossible”warns American climatologist Michael Mann, of the University of Pennsylvania. “This is the final nail in the coffin”supports Rachel Cleetus, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, recalling that the most ambitious objective of the treaty was “already largely compromised by decades of lack of action”.
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Donald Trump, a long-time climate skeptic, continues to attack the environment. Anyone who calls climate change ” prank “ and of “one of the biggest scams of all time” had repealed, during his previous mandate, more than a hundred environmental standards resulting from the presidency of his predecessor, Barack Obama, and he had taken his country out of the Paris agreement. The United States reinstated it in 2021, upon the inauguration of Joe Biden.
This time, the Republican wants to strike harder and faster. With its leitmotif « Drill, baby drill »Donald Trump, financed by oil companies, has hammered it home: he intends to massively relaunch gas and oil production – which he describes as “liquid gold under our feet” –while continuing to burn coal. A policy that goes against scientific recommendations and the commitment made at COP28, in 2023, to a transition away from fossil fuels.
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