US climate envoy John Podesta has called on governments to believe in the United States’ clean energy economy, saying President-elect Donald Trump can slow but not stop its climate change pledges.
On Monday, during the first day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, Podesta told the summit that Trump’s electoral victory last week was “obviously bitterly disappointing”
“But what I want to tell you today is that while the United States federal government, under Donald Trump, may put climate action on the back burner, the work to contain climate change is going to continue in the United States,” Podesta said.
He added that outgoing President Joe Biden’s landmark climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which provides billions of dollars in subsidies for clean energy, would continue to drive investments in solar, wind, and other technologies.
“I don’t think that any of that is reversible. Can it be slowed down? Maybe. But the direction is clear,” he said.
“This is not the end of our fight for a cleaner, safer planet. Facts are still facts. Science is still science. The fight is bigger than one election, one political cycle in one country. This fight is bigger, still, because we are all living through a year defined by the climate crisis in every country of the world,” he added.
However, during his election campaign, Trump said he would withdraw from the Paris Agreement to reduce global temperatures to below two degrees, roll back parts of the IRA, and increase already record-high fossil fuel production.
He previously called emissions regulations part of a “green new scam” and claimed, without elaborating, that offshore wind turbines harm whales.
CR: Al Jazeera
