Trump has pledged to overturn Biden’s progress on climate change. What will that mean?
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The U.S. saw some of its costliest natural disasters in the last few months during the Earth’s hottest year on record because of greenhouse gases emitted by fossil fuels. Included in his calls for a return to common sense, Trump declared a national energy emergency, tying energy costs to inflation. He said that America would be a manufacturing nation, stating that the country has the “largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth.”.
![[People navigate through debris after heavy rains from Hurricane Helene last September in Lake Lure, North Carolina. Climate change worsened by fossil fuel emissions is making hurricanes faster and stronger]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/20/22/GettyImages-2174266006.jpg)
“And, we are going to use it,” he said, adding that the U.S. would fill strategic reserves up “right to the top.”. In an attempt to address future peril and suffering imposed disproportionately on island nations, the Paris climate agreement was struck in December 2015. The international commitment was signed by nearly 200 countries, including the U.S. under former President Barack Obama, before Trump first withdrew.
![[Former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris listen as President Donald Trump speaks after being sworn in as the 47th President in the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Biden took actions to protect U.S. land and waters from drilling for fossil fuels]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/20/19/GettyImages-2194375009.jpg)
“For the next few years the best we can hope is that Washington won’t manage to wreck the efforts of others,” climate activist and writer Bill McKibben told The Associated Press. “Pulling out of Paris shows how threatened Trump is by the recent global compact to transition away from fossil fuels,” Ben Goloff, senior climate campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement shared with The Independent on Monday. “Global leaders are on the right track to get us off the coal, oil and gas that are disrupting the climate and wreaking havoc from L.A. to North Carolina and all around the world. While Trump buries his head in the sand, it’s going to be up to state leaders to lock eyes on the climate crisis and lead us toward a livable future.”.
