Republican presidential candidate former U.S. President Donald Trump listens to a question as he visits the Chez What furniture store that was damaged during Hurricane Helene September 30, 2024 in Valdosta, Georgia.
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Donald Trump’s election victory on Wednesday sparked a palpable sense of dismay within the climate community, with two key architects of the historic Paris accord warning that the outcome would block global efforts to protect the environment.
Trump will defeat Democratic rival Kamala Harris and return to the White House for a second four-year term, according to an NBC News projection.
It’s a historic and somewhat improbable return for one of the most polarizing figures in modern American politics.
The 78-year-old, who called the climate crisis a “one of the big scams,” committed to rise in power fossil fuel production, rolling back outgoing President Joe Biden’s emissions-limiting regulations, and withdrawing the country from the Paris climate accord – again.
The 2015 Paris Agreement is a critically important framework designed to reduce global warming greenhouse gas emissions. Its objective is to “limit global warming to well below 2, preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels” in the long term.
Laurence Tubiana, one of the main architects of the Paris Agreement, said Trump’s election victory “is a setback for global climate action, but the Paris Agreement has proven resilient and is stronger than the policies of any country”.
Tubiana, a French economist and diplomat now CEO of the European Climate Foundation, said the current context is “very different” from that of Trump’s first election victory in 2016.
French economist Laurence Tubiana speaks at a “G-20 Event: New Challenges in International Taxation” at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington DC, USA, on April 17, 2024.
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“There is powerful economic momentum behind the global transition, which the United States has led and benefited from, but now risks abandoning. The devastating toll of recent hurricanes is a grim reminder that all “Americans are affected by worsening climate change,” Tubiana said.
“To meet the demands of their citizens, cities and states across the United States are taking bold action,” she added.
“Europe now has the responsibility and opportunity to take the lead and lead the way. By pursuing a just and balanced transition, in close partnership with others, it can show that ambitious climate action protects people , strengthens economies and builds resilience.”
“An antidote to unhappiness and despair”
Separately, Christiana Figueres, the former United Nations climate chief who oversaw the 2015 Paris summit, said the US election result would be seen as a “major blow to global climate action”.
However, Figueres said “the country cannot and will not stop the changes underway to decarbonize the economy and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.”
“Supporting oil and gas means falling behind in a rapidly changing world,” she continued, predicting that clean energy technologies would continue to supplant fossil fuels in the years to come.
Dame Christiana Figueres, Chair of the Earthshot Prize, speaks at the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies on September 24, 2024 in New York.
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“In the meantime, the vital work being done in communities around the world to regenerate our planet and our societies will continue, imbued today with a new, even more determined spirit,” Figueres said.
“Being here in South Africa for the Earthshot Prize clearly shows that there is an antidote to unhappiness and despair. This is action on the ground, and it is happening in the four corners of the Earth.
