As the more definitive results of the US election have come in and former president Donald Trump has been named the next president of the United States, it is important to acknowledge what this influential decision will mean for the climate and the environment.
Ideologies and Rhetoric
Trump has taken a skeptic view on the climate change emergency. He has previously claimed it to be a falsity and has prioritized other matters over global warming. Trump has called the climate crisis a “hoax,” “scam,” and “Fake News and Fake Science.” This kind of rhetoric allows for scientific breakthroughs and recommendations to be undermined and doubted. It takes focus away from consequences of climate change and allows Trump to continue his less environmentally regulated and fossil fueled decision making with little consideration for the planet.
Domestic US Laws
In Trump’s first term, he attempted to roll back over a hundred environmental regulations. These included measures such as: canceling requirements for oil and gas companies to report methane output, reducing pollution regulation on offshore oil operations, finalizing a plan for oil and gas drilling in Alaskan wildlife refuges, approving the Dakota Access Pipeline (despite pleas from Indigenous people), reducing the considerations of climate change on the Endangered Species Act, allowing coal companies to dump into local streams, reducing household appliance energy efficiency standards, and much more. Despite these repeals, the rate of carbon emissions in the US did see a slight decrease from 2016-2020, but the overall trend has remained a positive increase.
With Trump back in office, Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, a bill that dedicated tax incentives and billions of dollars to clean energy, could be under threat. Trump’s plan for American-made energy instead focuses on continued use of fossil fuels and particularly oil drilling in the state of Alaska. The US is already off-track of its target to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030 and Trump’s reversal of that bill could diverge emissions goals even more.
International Influence
A landmark change during Trump’s first administrative term was removing the USA from the Paris Climate Agreement. The Paris Climate Agreement holds all of its members to a commitment of keeping global warming to less than 2℃. With the US out of this agreement, it no longer held that obligation to mitigating global warming and also pulled key funding for developing countries that more developed countries are intended to contribute to. This decision took Trump three out of four years of his first term to confirm and was quickly reversed by the Biden administration, but could happen again. Leaving the Paris Climate Agreement draws doubts to its severity and necessity which could cause an international ripple effect.
Climate change is not just an issue of policy and as a top greenhouse gas emitter, any increase in emissions from the US will have detrimental effects on the warming of our planet and continue to worsen the burden of this issue on less developed countries.
Conclusion
Donald Trump’s second term makes way for more climate change denials and less long term concern for the environment. His previous administration reduced important environmental regulations and he could do the same with this upcoming term. The Carbon Brief estimates this could add 4 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere and, thus, greatly accelerate the rate of climate change.