As news of Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections spread around the world, some of the first reactions came from organizations working to combat climate change: They vowed to fight any attempts to block environmental action or the Paris Agreement.
The date of the election, Nov. 8, coincided with the second day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco, and a range of groups quickly made their positions clear.
“President-elect Donald Trump threatens our environment and we vow to fight him every step of the way,” stated Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth US.
“Like Sen. Bernie Sanders, Trump tapped into a deep resentment about the governing establishment of both the Democratic and Republican Parties. He spoke using fear, suspicion, racism and hate to people who felt the government had left them behind,” Pica added.
Trump and many of his supporters are climate-change skeptics or deniers. Trump has said that he intends to cut federal spending on clean energy and to discard the regulations that the Obama administration has implemented to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He has also called global warming a hoax.
In the face of such a stance, environmental coalitions such as Climate Action Network (CAN) have said they will mobilize to protect the Paris Agreement, which came into force on Nov. 4. The main aim of that agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“The climate movement is a people’s movement. 103 countries have ratified the Paris Agreement, testimony to the power of people to push their governments to act on climate change,” CAN said from Marrakech.
CAN said that its movement “goes beyond governments to represent a broad and diverse coalition” of cities, businesses, local communities and individuals.”
The coalition stated: “No one government or individual, however powerful, can deny the transformational change that is unfolding before us and the growing scientific evidence that we need to act urgently to move away from destructive fossil fuels and embrace a 100 percent renewable energy future.”
“President-elect Trump must recognize the moral, economic and social imperative to lead and act on climate change and carry forward the commitments made by the United States under the Paris Agreement,” CAN said.
In a linked statement, Mohamed Adow, senior climate adviser for the UK charity Christian Aid, stressed that while the US would suffer from any obstruction of the efforts to combat climate change, such action would also risk the “lives of millions of the world’s poorest people who have done nothing to cause the problem yet are the most vulnerable to its effects.”
Meanwhile, May Boeve, executive director of the environmental organization 350.org, said that “Trump’s election is a disaster,” but she warned that “it cannot be the end” of the international climate process.
“We’re not giving up the fight and neither should the international community,” Boeve stated. “Trump will try and slam the brakes on climate action, which means we need to throw all of our weight on the accelerator. In the US, the climate movement will put everything on the line to protect the progress we’ve made and continue to push for bold action.”
Boeve said that American environmentalists needed the rest of the world to charge ahead and look beyond the White House to partner with civil society, businesses and local governments, which are still committed to climate action.
“Our work becomes much harder now, but it’s not impossible, and we refuse to give up hope,” she added.
Some NGOs have themselves faced criticism related to their work and fund-raising, and critics have questioned the value of a seemingly never-ending series of climate summits. But environmental activists say that pressure on policymakers needs to be maintained to achieve results.
Even before the elections, the United Nations and NGOs had expressed their concerns that the road to turning the Paris Agreement into action would be long and difficult. At her opening address at COP22, Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said that while the early entry into force of the Paris Agreement was a cause for celebration, achieving the aims and ambitions were “not a given.”
According to the UN, the “timetable is pressing because, globally, greenhouse gas emissions which drive climate change and its impacts are not yet falling.”
The incoming Trump administration could conceivably opt out of the Agreement because Republicans will control the US Senate as well as the House of Representatives. But Michael Brune, executive director of the US-based Sierra Club, was blunt about the choices facing the President-elect.
“Trump must choose whether he will be a president remembered for putting America and the world on a path to climate disaster, or for listening to the American public and keeping us on a path to climate progress,” Brune said.
“Trump better choose wisely, otherwise we can guarantee him the hardest fight of his life every step of the way.”
—
IDN-InDepthNews
The date of the election, Nov. 8, coincided with the second day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco, and a range of groups quickly made their positions clear.
“President-elect Donald Trump threatens our environment and we vow to fight him every step of the way,” stated Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth US.
“Like Sen. Bernie Sanders, Trump tapped into a deep resentment about the governing establishment of both the Democratic and Republican Parties. He spoke using fear, suspicion, racism and hate to people who felt the government had left them behind,” Pica added.
Trump and many of his supporters are climate-change skeptics or deniers. Trump has said that he intends to cut federal spending on clean energy and to discard the regulations that the Obama administration has implemented to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He has also called global warming a hoax.
In the face of such a stance, environmental coalitions such as Climate Action Network (CAN) have said they will mobilize to protect the Paris Agreement, which came into force on Nov. 4. The main aim of that agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“The climate movement is a people’s movement. 103 countries have ratified the Paris Agreement, testimony to the power of people to push their governments to act on climate change,” CAN said from Marrakech.
CAN said that its movement “goes beyond governments to represent a broad and diverse coalition” of cities, businesses, local communities and individuals.”
The coalition stated: “No one government or individual, however powerful, can deny the transformational change that is unfolding before us and the growing scientific evidence that we need to act urgently to move away from destructive fossil fuels and embrace a 100 percent renewable energy future.”
“President-elect Trump must recognize the moral, economic and social imperative to lead and act on climate change and carry forward the commitments made by the United States under the Paris Agreement,” CAN said.
In a linked statement, Mohamed Adow, senior climate adviser for the UK charity Christian Aid, stressed that while the US would suffer from any obstruction of the efforts to combat climate change, such action would also risk the “lives of millions of the world’s poorest people who have done nothing to cause the problem yet are the most vulnerable to its effects.”
Meanwhile, May Boeve, executive director of the environmental organization 350.org, said that “Trump’s election is a disaster,” but she warned that “it cannot be the end” of the international climate process.
“We’re not giving up the fight and neither should the international community,” Boeve stated. “Trump will try and slam the brakes on climate action, which means we need to throw all of our weight on the accelerator. In the US, the climate movement will put everything on the line to protect the progress we’ve made and continue to push for bold action.”
Boeve said that American environmentalists needed the rest of the world to charge ahead and look beyond the White House to partner with civil society, businesses and local governments, which are still committed to climate action.
“Our work becomes much harder now, but it’s not impossible, and we refuse to give up hope,” she added.
Some NGOs have themselves faced criticism related to their work and fund-raising, and critics have questioned the value of a seemingly never-ending series of climate summits. But environmental activists say that pressure on policymakers needs to be maintained to achieve results.
Even before the elections, the United Nations and NGOs had expressed their concerns that the road to turning the Paris Agreement into action would be long and difficult. At her opening address at COP22, Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said that while the early entry into force of the Paris Agreement was a cause for celebration, achieving the aims and ambitions were “not a given.”
According to the UN, the “timetable is pressing because, globally, greenhouse gas emissions which drive climate change and its impacts are not yet falling.”
The incoming Trump administration could conceivably opt out of the Agreement because Republicans will control the US Senate as well as the House of Representatives. But Michael Brune, executive director of the US-based Sierra Club, was blunt about the choices facing the President-elect.
“Trump must choose whether he will be a president remembered for putting America and the world on a path to climate disaster, or for listening to the American public and keeping us on a path to climate progress,” Brune said.
“Trump better choose wisely, otherwise we can guarantee him the hardest fight of his life every step of the way.”
—
IDN-InDepthNews
