My Take | Warming world can hope for best, but prepare for worst with Trump
Cold fact is the cavalry is not coming and the US is likely, once again, to be on the sidelines in critical fight embraced by China against climate change
For the second time in a decade, UN climate talks are being overshadowed by an unsettling feeling, call it deja vu. As in 2016, American voters have chosen to send Donald Trump to the White House, starting the clock ticking on a US withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming.
Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, wrenched the United States out of the Paris climate accord during his first term. President Joe Biden in 2021 brought the US back to the treaty, under which 196 parties agreed to try to limit the rise in global average temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Trump’s imminent return is hanging over the Cop29 talks in Baku, where hope is in short supply for a strong agreement on a global climate finance target for wealthy nations to help the developing world meet its emissions targets. There already was ample scepticism about whether the 1.5-degree cap was achievable – average global temperatures approached that limit in 2023, the warmest year on record globally, and 2024 is expected to be even warmer.
There is little reason to believe Trump will temper his campaign trail pledges to pull the US out of the agreement, support the fossil-fuel industry and roll back Biden’s climate policies. The fear is he will move more quickly in his second term. The cold fact is this: the cavalry isn’t coming. As during Trump’s first term, it is going to be up to the rest of the world to step up.
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Typhoon Kong-rey the largest storm to hit Taiwan in nearly 30 years
Non-participation of the world’s second-largest emitter in efforts to curb greenhouse gases will slow progress for the next four years. Policy cooperation between the US and China, the world’s largest emitter, will be in jeopardy.
