Donald Trump has said that he will pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement on day 1 of his presidency, on 20 January. He will probably also repeal, or at least dismantle core parts of, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — his predecessor Joe Biden’s signature climate achievement — which offers financial incentives for clean-energy initiatives such as electric vehicles and solar panels.
This could mean a setback for global climate action as soon as Trump takes office. The United States is the world’s second-highest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind China. If it rows back on climate policy, other nations might weaken their pledges, too.
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Having called climate change a ‘hoax’, it seems clear that the incoming president still thinks climate change presents little danger to the US public, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. The world is on the heels of yet another record-breaking year for heat and extreme weather. In California, these past few weeks have seen dozens of people lose their lives and thousands their homes, owing to wildfires that were likely to have been exacerbated by climate change.
Several other national initiatives are also likely to be rescinded: one that requires oil and gas companies to locate and fix methane leaks; one that limits how much carbon coal-fired powerplants can emit; and some that restrict mercury pollution and reduce the amount of pollutants that can be discharged from coal facilities.
These predictions might seem to sound the death knell for effective climate action, but, as an environmental-policy researcher, I know that it is not too late. Every bit of warming prevented helps to protect communities and ecosystems. Individuals and groups are not powerless. They can push back on Trump’s climate-policy actions.
At the federal level, many members of Congress will probably be reticent to repeal the IRA, especially if the communities they represent host renewable-energy projects. And any executive order to rescind or weaken environmental regulations can be challenged in court. During Trump’s first term, environmental groups and state attorney-generals used this strategy to overturn a majority of his environment-related executive actions.
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State and local governments can also step up by establishing clean-energy mandates, energy-efficiency standards and carbon-trading programmes. During Trump’s first term, for example, Maryland mandated that 50% of its electricity come from renewable-energy sources by 2030, up from a previous standard of 7.5%.
