BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Whatever course new President Donald Trump makes on climate change, America’s clean energy economy will not end up in the sordid past, a combative but “bitterly disappointed” top U.S. climate negotiator said Monday.
During the first day of the UN climate talks, COP29, climate advisor John Podesta struck a challenging but realistic tone during a press conference. He said Trump will likely withdraw the United States from the historic Paris Agreement and seek to roll back many of the Biden administration’s signature climate measures, including the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which included $375 billion in climate spending.
“Are we facing new headwinds? Absolute. But we are not returning to the energy system of the 1950s. No way,” Podesta said.
“Setbacks are inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable,” Podesta said during a Biden speech last week. “This is not the end of our fight for a cleaner, safer planet. Facts are still facts. Science is still science. The struggle is bigger than one election, one political cycle in one country. This struggle is even greater as we are all living through a year defined by the climate crisis in every country around the world.”
Podesta went through a shopping list of climate disasters, starting with the hottest day on record, July 22, and moving on to floods, hurricanes and droughts.
“All this is not a hoax. It’s real. It is a matter of life and death,” Podesta said. “Fortunately, many in our country and around the world are working to prepare the world for this new reality and mitigate the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.”
Podesta said the Biden administration is still negotiating even as it prepares to leave.
“We are here to work and we are committed to a successful outcome at COP29,” Podesta said. “We can and will make real progress on the backs of our climate-conscious states and cities, our innovators, our businesses and our citizens. especially young people who understand better than anyone that climate change poses an existential threat that we cannot ignore.”
Another senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said other countries are still working with U.S. diplomats because they care what the U.S. thinks and that any agreement reached here must be consensual. Outside analysts had speculated that the US would be ignored.
“In January we will inaugurate a president whose relationship to climate change is represented by the words ‘hoax’ and ‘fossil fuels,’” Podesta said. “He has vowed to dismantle our environmental safeguards and once again withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement. That’s what he said. And we must believe him.”
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