Climate Envoy Says Work Will Continue Despite Trump’s Return

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN (Reuters) – US climate envoy John Podesta on November 11 urged governments to keep faith in the country’s promise to combat global warming, saying Donald Trump can slow, not stop, the transition from fossil fuels when he returns to office in January.

The annual UN climate summit began on November 11 here, with many country delegations concerned abouy Trump’s victory and how it would hinder progress to limit planetary warming.

Trump has promised to again remove the United States, the world’s biggest historic greenhouse gas emitter, from international climate cooperation and maximize the country’s already record-high fossil fuel production.

“For those of us dedicated to climate action, last week’s outcome in the United States is obviously bitterly disappointing,” Podesta said at the summit.

“But what I want to tell you today is that while the United States federal government, under Donald Trump, may put climate action on the back burner, the work to contain climate change is going to continue in the United States.”

He said the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), President Joe Biden’s landmark climate legislation providing billions of dollars in subsidies for clean energy, would U.S. state governments would also push emissions cuts through regulation.

“I don’t think that any of that is reversible. Can it be slowed down? Maybe. But the direction is clear,” he said.

Although Trump has promised to rescind the IRA, to do so would require an act of Congress – and that could be elusive due to support from some Republican lawmakers whose districts benefit from IRA-linked investments.