• Education
    • Higher Education
    • Scholarships & Grants
    • Online Learning
    • School Reforms
    • Research & Innovation
  • Lifestyle
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Fashion & Beauty
    • Home & Living
    • Relationships & Family
  • Technology & Startups
    • Software & Apps
    • Startup Success Stories
    • Startups & Innovations
    • Tech Regulations
    • Venture Capital
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cybersecurity
    • Emerging Technologies
    • Gadgets & Devices
    • Industry Analysis
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy & Policy
Today Headline
  • Home
  • World News
    • Us & Canada
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • Africa
    • Middle East
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • Political Parties
    • Government Policies
    • International Relations
    • Legislative News
  • Business & Finance
    • Market Trends
    • Stock Market
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Corporate News
    • Economic Policies
  • Science & Environment
    • Space Exploration
    • Climate Change
    • Wildlife & Conservation
    • Environmental Policies
    • Medical Research
  • Health
    • Public Health
    • Mental Health
    • Medical Breakthroughs
    • Fitness & Nutrition
    • Pandemic Updates
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Tennis
    • Olympics
    • Motorsport
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV & Streaming
    • Celebrity News
    • Awards & Festivals
  • Crime & Justice
    • Court Cases
    • Cybercrime
    • Policing
    • Criminal Investigations
    • Legal Reforms
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • World News
    • Us & Canada
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • Africa
    • Middle East
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • Political Parties
    • Government Policies
    • International Relations
    • Legislative News
  • Business & Finance
    • Market Trends
    • Stock Market
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Corporate News
    • Economic Policies
  • Science & Environment
    • Space Exploration
    • Climate Change
    • Wildlife & Conservation
    • Environmental Policies
    • Medical Research
  • Health
    • Public Health
    • Mental Health
    • Medical Breakthroughs
    • Fitness & Nutrition
    • Pandemic Updates
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Tennis
    • Olympics
    • Motorsport
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV & Streaming
    • Celebrity News
    • Awards & Festivals
  • Crime & Justice
    • Court Cases
    • Cybercrime
    • Policing
    • Criminal Investigations
    • Legal Reforms
No Result
View All Result
Today Headline
No Result
View All Result
Home World News Asia

[Mark Gongloff] Trump 2.0 not hopeless for climate

November 12, 2024
in Asia
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
0
[Mark Gongloff] Trump 2.0 not hopeless for climate
18
SHARES
40
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


In poll after poll, Americans say they care about climate change. But then again, they also say they care about democracy, women’s rights and other such ideals. And yet for the second time in three elections, they have chosen to give ultimate political power to someone loudly and diametrically opposed to them.

For the climate, the best we can hope is that the aftermath of the 2024 election will remain just short of catastrophic. The progress made by President Joe Biden is significant and in some key ways will be difficult to undo. The world’s transition from fossil fuels toward clean energy has a natural momentum that survived Donald Trump’s first term in office and will likely survive his second.

With a big enough dose of hopium, we might even choose to believe that Elon Musk — who has made much of his fortune running a company dependent on that energy transition — will be a moderating influence on a president who says wind turbines kill whales and cause cancer. But Musk isn’t even a moderating influence on himself most of the time, and Trump has repeatedly proved to be a poor candidate for moderation anyway.

Far more likely is that an energy transition described again and again recently as moving too slowly to limit global heating to merely bad levels will receive little to no help from the government of the world’s largest fossil-fuel producer for at least the next four critical years. A Trump administration will add 4 billion more tons of carbon pollution to the atmosphere than a second Biden term would have, according to a June analysis by the nonprofit Carbon Brief. That matches the combined annual emissions of the European Union and Japan. The country’s goal of cutting emissions in half by 2030 is now a pipe dream.

Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation blueprint for a second Trump term, written by several former Trump officials, calls for overturning Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the most important climate legislation in history. It calls for gutting regulation of power plants and auto emissions and widespread drilling for oil and natural gas. It would fill the federal government with climate-change deniers and fossil-fuel lobbyists. And it would remove the US — still one of the world’s biggest carbon polluters — from the global effort to minimize and adapt to environmental chaos.

Of course, we don’t need the Heritage Foundation to tell us what Trump would like to do in a second term; he did all of the above in his first. A big question now is the durability of the scaffolding Biden built in the four-year interregnum between the two.

Biden’s climate-related executive orders can be excised with the stroke of a pen. Trump-packed courts probably won’t stand in the way of gutting environmental regulations. Trump could shut down the flow of government loans to cleantech projects and make the Internal Revenue Service an obstacle to accessing tax benefits.

On the other hand, the US government isn’t the only player in this game. Local governments can still make a difference. Last Tuesday, Washington voters kept the state’s cap-and-trade program alive. Columbus and Nashville approved mass-transit upgrades. The rest of the world, including corporate America, recognizes the economic, social and public health benefits of building a cleaner future. Ironically, the man who called climate change a Chinese hoax could well hand leadership of the fight against global heating to China.

And most of the IRA’s cleantech subsidies are going to Republican districts. Republican Party politicians have already made it clear they’d like to keep them. If Trump and Republicans in Congress choose to listen, that could keep billions of federal dollars flowing to solar, wind and battery installations, electric-vehicle projects and more. And global energy markets don’t just shift gears at the whim of US presidents.

But electrification and clean energy are only part of the equation for meeting the goal of the Paris Agreement to keep global heating well below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial averages. To be truly effective, the IRA’s carrots must be paired with sticks to discourage fossil-fuel use, including carbon pricing and ending implicit and explicit subsidies. Those will probably never see the light of day in a Trump regime.

The window to curb emissions and avoid the worst outcomes of global heating is closing rapidly. Trump’s government might be about to help slam it shut. It’s up to the Americans who claim to care about such things to join the rest of the world in doing everything they can to push in the other direction.

Mark Gongloff

Mark Gongloff is a Bloomberg Opinion editor and columnist covering climate change. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. — Ed.

(Tribune Content Agency)


Previous Post

Bitcoinâ€s purposeless power problem

Next Post

PNC financial CEO William Demchak sells $253,119 in stock By Investing.com

Related Posts

Conservative Karol Nawrocki wins Poland's presidential election

Conservative Karol Nawrocki wins Poland’s presidential election

June 2, 2025
6
The Straits Times logo

Taiwan warns of rise in Chinese military activity around region

June 2, 2025
5
Next Post
Flex Ltd. director Charles Stevens sells $509,075 in stock By Investing.com

PNC financial CEO William Demchak sells $253,119 in stock By Investing.com

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Family calls for change after B.C. nurse dies by suicide after attacks on the job

Family calls for change after B.C. nurse dies by suicide after attacks on the job

April 2, 2025
Pioneering 3D printing project shares successes

Product reduces TPH levels to non-hazardous status

November 27, 2024

Hospital Mergers Fail to Deliver Better Care or Lower Costs, Study Finds todayheadline

December 31, 2024

Police ID man who died after Corso Italia fight

December 23, 2024
Harris tells supporters 'never give up' and urges peaceful transfer of power

Harris tells supporters ‘never give up’ and urges peaceful transfer of power

0
Des Moines Man Accused Of Shooting Ex-Girlfriend's Mother

Des Moines Man Accused Of Shooting Ex-Girlfriend’s Mother

0

Trump ‘looks forward’ to White House meeting with Biden

0
Catholic voters were critical to Donald Trump’s blowout victory: ‘Harris snubbed us’

Catholic voters were critical to Donald Trump’s blowout victory: ‘Harris snubbed us’

0
Aid ship set sail from Sicily with aid for Gaza

UN agency says Israeli settler violence at highest level in 20 years

June 2, 2025
Sources: United closing in on $83m Cunha deal

Men’s summer transfer grades: Man United get a B for Cunha

June 2, 2025
Russia and Ukraine to talk about peace but are still far apart

Russia and Ukraine to talk about peace but are still far apart todayheadline

June 2, 2025
Suspect in custody after 11 stabbed at Oregon homeless services provider

Suspect in custody after 11 stabbed at Oregon homeless services provider

June 2, 2025

Recent News

Aid ship set sail from Sicily with aid for Gaza

UN agency says Israeli settler violence at highest level in 20 years

June 2, 2025
2
Sources: United closing in on $83m Cunha deal

Men’s summer transfer grades: Man United get a B for Cunha

June 2, 2025
4
Russia and Ukraine to talk about peace but are still far apart

Russia and Ukraine to talk about peace but are still far apart todayheadline

June 2, 2025
4
Suspect in custody after 11 stabbed at Oregon homeless services provider

Suspect in custody after 11 stabbed at Oregon homeless services provider

June 2, 2025
5

TodayHeadline is a dynamic news website dedicated to delivering up-to-date and comprehensive news coverage from around the globe.

Follow Us

Browse by Category

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Basketball
  • Business & Finance
  • Climate Change
  • Crime & Justice
  • Cybersecurity
  • Economic Policies
  • Elections
  • Entertainment
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Environmental Policies
  • Europe
  • Football
  • Gadgets & Devices
  • Health
  • Medical Research
  • Mental Health
  • Middle East
  • Motorsport
  • Olympics
  • Politics
  • Public Health
  • Relationships & Family
  • Science & Environment
  • Software & Apps
  • Space Exploration
  • Sports
  • Stock Market
  • Technology & Startups
  • Tennis
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • Us & Canada
  • Wildlife & Conservation
  • World News

Recent News

Aid ship set sail from Sicily with aid for Gaza

UN agency says Israeli settler violence at highest level in 20 years

June 2, 2025
Sources: United closing in on $83m Cunha deal

Men’s summer transfer grades: Man United get a B for Cunha

June 2, 2025
  • Education
  • Lifestyle
  • Technology & Startups
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy & Policy

© 2024 Todayheadline.co

Welcome Back!

OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Business & Finance
  • Corporate News
  • Economic Policies
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Market Trends
  • Crime & Justice
  • Court Cases
  • Criminal Investigations
  • Cybercrime
  • Legal Reforms
  • Policing
  • Education
  • Higher Education
  • Online Learning
  • Entertainment
  • Awards & Festivals
  • Celebrity News
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Health
  • Fitness & Nutrition
  • Medical Breakthroughs
  • Mental Health
  • Pandemic Updates
  • Lifestyle
  • Fashion & Beauty
  • Food & Drink
  • Home & Living
  • Politics
  • Elections
  • Government Policies
  • International Relations
  • Legislative News
  • Political Parties
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Middle East
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Cybersecurity
  • Emerging Technologies
  • Gadgets & Devices
  • Industry Analysis
  • Basketball
  • Football
  • Motorsport
  • Olympics
  • Climate Change
  • Environmental Policies
  • Medical Research
  • Science & Environment
  • Space Exploration
  • Wildlife & Conservation
  • Sports
  • Tennis
  • Technology & Startups
  • Software & Apps
  • Startup Success Stories
  • Startups & Innovations
  • Tech Regulations
  • Venture Capital
  • Uncategorized
  • World News
  • Us & Canada
  • Public Health
  • Relationships & Family
  • Travel
  • Research & Innovation
  • Scholarships & Grants
  • School Reforms
  • Stock Market
  • TV & Streaming
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy & Policy
  • About us
  • Contact

© 2024 Todayheadline.co