Le Monde: This is how Trump undermines international efforts on the climate crisis Environment and climate

Not only did US President Donald Trump withdraw from international negotiations on the climate crisis, as he did during his first term (2017-2021), but he also intends to cancel the results of those negotiations, while raising as much controversy as possible while putting pressure on other countries.

The United States withdrew from the summit of heads of state on the climate crisis, which was held on November 6 and 7 in the city of Belem, Brazil, and will not attend the United Nations climate conference “COP30,” which began Monday in Brazil and continues until November 21.

The French newspaper Le Monde believes that the American absence from that conference is part of the persistent efforts made by the US administration to undermine any measures that other countries may take in the field of combating global warming.

The newspaper reported that at the beginning of his second term, the US President signed an executive order aimed at withdrawing again from the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 regarding reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as happened in 2020.

Climate denial

Robert Stavins, a professor at Harvard University and director of the Environmental Economics Program at Harvard University, summarizes the situation by saying that the Trump administration’s position on climate change is very negative. Not only is his country not participating in international efforts, but it is also trying to pressure other countries, by threatening them with trade sanctions, to reduce their climate ambitions.

On September 23, Trump expressed his doubts about climate change to other countries at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and said that the climate crisis is “the biggest fraud ever committed in the world.” He addressed the assembled heads of state, saying, “If you do not distance yourselves from this environmental hoax, your country will fail.”

For example, Washington thwarted the pollution tax agreement on shipping aimed at removing carbon from the sector, after years of negotiations that were supposed to end in mid-October, but the Trump administration used all its influence to prevent the signing, threatening to impose additional customs duties on countries enthusiastic about that agreement.

Pamela Chisek, a professor of political science at Manhattan University and director of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, tracked American participation in various international climate-related forums and noted that the United States is working in various ways to undermine any progress made on various issues.

Interest first

According to Le Monde, the Trump administration’s climate roadmap has become completely clear with the aim of preventing any initiative that conflicts with the interests of American industry or fossil fuels, after the country became the largest producer of oil and gas in the world in recent years.

Thus, the treaty limiting plastic production was canceled last August under continued American pressure, as the United States is the second largest producer of plastic in the world, a material made partly from fossil fuels such as oil and gas.

The decline in environmental issues in the United States is not only due to the Trump administration, but is fueled by two main factors. The first is the rise of “technological solutions” that promise a solution to the climate crisis through technological innovation, as expressed in some statements by billionaire Elon Musk.

The second reason for this decline is the lack of political support, after the environmental movement came under the authority of “Make America Healthy Again,” which was founded by Robert Kennedy, the current anti-vaccine Secretary of Health, and at a time when Democrats became less vocal in expressing climate issues.

Interest in climate issues has also declined within American civil society, and the best evidence of this is that Bill Gates, the billionaire who heads the largest charitable foundation in the world, called at the end of last October on major donors to redirect their money towards other priorities, such as combating poverty, disease and hunger in the world.