Nature | Trump victory deals blow to global fight against climate change

The global fight against climate change is likely to be derailed by Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, a blow to the industries working to clean up the energy supply.

The next president has questioned the science of climate change and vowed to withdraw from the Paris agreement to limit global warming, while pledging to stimulate production of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. Green campaigners and policymakers, some of whom are gathered this week in Morocco for talks on implementing the Paris deal, sounded the alarm over the upheaval they expect when Trump takes office in January.

“The presidency of Donald Trump relegates the West as we knew it to the realm of the past,” Reinhard Butikofer and Monica Frassoni, co-chairs of the European Green Party, said in a statement. “If Donald Trump pursues the foreign policies that he announced during his campaign, this will severely undermine transatlantic relations, the international rule of law and world peace.”

The U.S. under President Barack Obama rescued a two-decade old process the United Nations promoted to rein in pollution damaging the climate, forging a the Paris deal last year. Along with China and more than 190 other countries, the accord set out a framework for all nations to cut emissions. Trump has said he will cancel that work.

“Trump’s election is a disaster,” May Boeve, executive director of the anti-fossil-fuel campaign group 350.org, said in a statement. “Trump will try and slam the brakes on climate action. Our work becomes much harder now, but it’s not impossible, and we refuse to give up.”

Envoys drawn from environment and energy ministries are gathered for two weeks off talks on climate organized by the United Nations, aiming to make progress implementing the Paris deal. They have a round of technical meetings this morning and are due to finish their work on Nov. 18 with a set of rules on how Paris will be implemented.

Trump’s victory “will be unfavorable for the global pollution fight, though the trend to combat climate change may not change worldwide,” said Zheng Xinye, associate dean at the School of Economics at the Renmin University of China in Beijing.

The Paris deal, which saw 197 countries agree last year to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius and work toward net zero greenhouse gas emissions, came into force last week after being ratified by almost 100 countries, including the U.S.

While U.S. officials have said it would be difficult for Trump or any other president to walk away from the Paris agreement, it’s not impossible for the next administration to unpick it. The U.S. is the richest among the top six polluting nations, and its support for the deal is essential to keep China and other developing economies working for cleaner industry. Bloomberg