Trump Aims a ‘Wrecking Ball’ at Climate Policy
The president-elect has said he’ll exit the Paris climate accord and ramp up oil and gas production.
Donald Trump at a rally in Potterville, Michigan, on Aug. 29.
Photographer: Brittany Greeson/The New York Times/Redux
President-elect Donald Trump has been crystal clear: His second term will be an assault on climate policy. On the campaign trail, he vowed to “drill, baby, drill” for more oil and gas and inveighed against offshore wind farms. He attacked President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment in history, as the “green new scam.” And he pledged to withdraw the US once again from the Paris climate agreement.
Abroad, it’s feared that the incoming administration will “take a wrecking ball to climate diplomacy,” says Rachel Cleetus, climate and energy policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Even before Trump takes office, his victory has cast a shadow over the United Nations climate conference COP29. Delegates there are grappling with how to navigate global climate action around the US in coming years.