As Donald Trump’s first presidency came mercifully to a close in November 2020, and his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement came into effect, I published an article, “After four years of wanton vandalism in the United States, it’s time to clean up the mess”, assessing his first term and leaving no doubt as to my views on its legacy.
On Monday, his first day after being returned to office with an even bigger mandate, Trump signed a package of executive orders that once again withdraws the United States from the Paris Agreement. In addition, he has ended all government support for the EV market, as well as announcing, as in 2020, no more investment in the charging network, while relaxing controls on vehicle emissions.
This is an utter disgrace. There is no other way to describe the most extreme and unscientific form of climate denialism by the government of the country that produces the most pollution on the planet. Trump has turned the United States into the enemy, taking it in the opposite direction to the rest of the world, and torpedoing the project to overcome the most important challenge we have as a species. The United States now joins Iran, Libya, Yemen as non-signatories to the Paris Agreement. The United States was already lagging far behind in vehicle electrification, and withdrawing incentives for decarbonization is little short of vandalism.
While the Paris Agreement is open to criticism, and there are serious doubts as to whether we can achieve its objectives, it is nevertheless a very powerful decision-making framework. Some emerging economies have delayed meeting their compliance targets for various reasons, such as the need to continue using fossil fuels that are fundamental to their economic development, arguing that they have the right to do what Europe and the United States have been doing for more than a century. But rather than trying to improve the Paris Agreement and address its faults, Trump has chosen instead to ridicule it.
The problem here is that Trump’s decisions, presumably supported by the people who voted for him, affect the entire planet. By abandoning the Paris Agreement, the United States rescinds its position as a guarantor of any kind of world order, if it ever was, a move that should force its allies to carefully reconsider who they align themselves with. A superpower that consciously and repeatedly boycotts the most important objective we have as a species and as a planet must be met with an adequate response from the rest of the international community.
By leaving the Paris Agreement, the United States gives up a leadership that, until now, was supposed to be at least aligned with the interests of those it called its partners at a time when climate destabilization is wreaking havoc around the world. Trump’s decision is the triumph of the crudest populism. When he and his supporters say “America First,” what they’re actually saying is “and your shitty country and the rest of the world can go to Hell.” So much for “the leader of the free world”, and definitely not a good thing to say when the other big superpower, China, is becoming the champion in emissions reduction and supplying the rest of the world with solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and EVs.
God only knows what awaits us over the next four years.
(En español, aquí)
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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