(Baku) Former US Vice President Al Gore is confident in the world’s ability to continue the fight against climate change, despite the re-election of Donald Trump in the United States.
Posted at 6:55 a.m.
“We have already experienced this,” put into perspective the democrat, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 and is in Baku for the 29e UN climate conference (COP29).
The return of Donald Trump, who could once again force the United States out of the 2015 Paris agreement, has cast a shadow over the conference being held this year in Azerbaijan.
“He has tried to do this in the past and yet the world continued to reduce its emissions, even during the four years of his previous presidential term,” Al Gore underlined Thursday, before the publication on Friday of the latest data from his project for detecting global greenhouse gas emissions, Climate TRACE.
“There’s so much more momentum that even a new Trump administration won’t be able to slow it down too much.” I hope I’m right,” he said.
A retreat by the United States “would not be a good thing”, but “progress should probably continue regardless”.
The former vice-president of Bill Clinton also expressed his optimism regarding market support for the energy transition, with the falling costs of renewable energies.
“Many people around the world are not just holding their breath waiting to see what the United States will do, they are moving forward on their own,” he said.
Climate TRACE uses artificial intelligence to analyze satellite data from around the world.
Last year at COP28 in Dubai, Al Gore pointed the finger at the United Arab Emirates’ emissions by publishing data from his project.
In Baku, this time he presented documents showing the 200 largest emitting sites in Azerbaijan, whose economy depends heavily on oil and gas exports.
The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev, repeated and assumed this week his expression “gift from God” to designate hydrocarbons.
“It is unfortunate that the fossil fuel sector and petro-states have taken control of the COP process to a level that is not healthy,” said Al Gore.
