{"id":5797,"date":"2024-11-09T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2024-11-09T00:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/09\/donald-trump-is-likely-to-scale-back-americas-climate-targets-will-other-countries-follow-suit\/"},"modified":"2024-11-09T00:00:35","modified_gmt":"2024-11-09T00:00:35","slug":"donald-trump-is-likely-to-scale-back-americas-climate-targets-will-other-countries-follow-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/09\/donald-trump-is-likely-to-scale-back-americas-climate-targets-will-other-countries-follow-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump is likely to scale back America\u2019s climate targets \u2013 will other countries follow suit?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a year of ever more extreme weather and continually rising global temperatures, it\u2019s no wonder this year\u2019s UN climate summit has been called \u2013 once again \u2013 the \u201clast-chance saloon\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yet swaggering out through its swing doors goes president-elect Donald Trump<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The timing of his election win, with its promise to withdraw the US<\/strong> from the global climate process, couldn\u2019t be worse.<\/p>\n

Next year is forecast to exceed 1.5 degrees of warming for the first time \u2013 something the Paris Agreement<\/strong> is designed to prevent from becoming the norm.<\/p>\n

Despite that and nearly 30 years of talks, man-made emissions of greenhouse gases are still rising.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Yet just a handful of nations have committed to cut them enough to prevent close to three degrees of warming by the end of the century.<\/p>\n

So does America\u2019s sudden departure, at this most precarious of moments, spell disaster?<\/p>\n

Under previous administrations, the US was a major diplomatic force at the talks \u2013 brokering significant concessions from more recalcitrant states, including the world\u2019s largest polluter, China<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It also set ambition, adopting carbon-cutting pledges and domestic policies like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that sent a powerful message to others that if the US saw a future beyond fossil fuels, everyone could.<\/p>\n

As the largest shareholder in the World Bank, the US was also seen as key to brokering a new deal to finance the green transition in poorer countries: the main objective of the COP29<\/strong> talks in Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

Now, although its negotiating team heading to Baku still serves President Joe Biden<\/strong>\u2018s agenda, it has lost its diplomatic leverage. In less than three months, they will all be out of a job.<\/p>\n

Will the departure of the US galvanise other leaders \u2013 threatened by increasingly right-leaning electorates at home \u2013 to scale back their ambition too?<\/p>\n

Or even follow its lead and ditch the \u201cwoke\u201d jamboree of school-shy teenagers, indigenous groups and NGOs some have long perceived the UN climate talks to be?<\/p>\n

Not likely \u2013 at least according to Jonathan Pershing, former president Barack Obama<\/strong>\u2018s then-climate envoy.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump tried to reverse US climate policies when he last won control of the White House and it didn\u2019t come to much, argues Mr Pershing.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven with the shock, not a single other country followed the United States in withdrawing from the Paris Agreement,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone will this time either.\u201d<\/p>\n

His optimism stems from the fact the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement can ignore climate realities, but not economic ones.<\/p>\n

Despite a campaign slogan of \u201cTrump Digs Coal,\u201d more coal-fired power plants closed under Mr Trump\u2019s last administration, for example, than under the climate-friendly one of Mr Obama.<\/p>\n

Alternatives to fossil fuels, like wind and solar power, are increasing in popularity and decreasing in price, a trend forecast to continue.<\/p>\n

This is the case even more so among America\u2019s competitors like China which, according to Mr Pershing, saw 40% of its GDP last year come from shifting to clean technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that they would forego that growth just because the US has withdrawn seems not only implausible but highly, highly, unlikely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That may be the analysis from COP insiders. However, international agreements have long lagged behind the urgency of the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

The talks about to start in Baku were supposed to accelerate action.<\/p>\n

Instead, negotiators will arrive knowing that 72 million Americans voted for Mr Trump. It\u2019s unlikely his denial of climate change was a major factor in their decision \u2013 but nor was it enough to deter them.<\/p>\n

His administration\u2019s plans may turn out to be just another bump along the road towards an inevitable zero-carbon future.<\/p>\n

But any climate scientist will tell you that even the slightest delay on that journey is disastrous \u2013 and more than half of America just signalled it has no interest in going faster.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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