The impact of Donald Trump’s anti-climate measures on our heating planet
Before assessing the impact of United States President Donald Trump’s climate and energy policies, some context about the current state of the planet is in order. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres recently called the world’s fossil fuel addiction sparing nothing and no one.”
The year 2024 was the first in which the average temperature of 1.5°C. Under a status quo scenario, Earth is on track to reach
The report found that climate-related global health threats are reaching new records, including heat-related deaths, food insecurity and the spread of infectious diseases.
and thousands of scientific papers, the world has made only minor headway on climate action.
Main carbon polluters and their victims
account for 73 per cent of total oil production and consumption globally.
, accounting for almost one-quarter of global production and more than 20 per cent of consumption in 2022. Canada is the fourth-largest oil producer and the ninth-largest consumer, and also has the CO2 emission levels of any country.
The , meanwhile, earmarked US$6.9 trillion over the last eight years to enable the fossil fuel industry.
According to an report, the richest one per cent of the world’s population, most of whom live in developed countries, are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution each year as the poorest 50 per cent of humanity. Low-income countries that make up nearly 60 per cent of the world’s population, on the other hand, account for .
in Azerbaijan last year, developed countries, including Canada, pledged to triple their financial support for poor climate-vulnerable countries to $300 billion a year by 2035 to help them mitigate emissions, adapt to climate threats and help pay for loss and damage.
But this is far from the $1.3 trillion demanded by Global South countries. Their pledges bear little resemblance to that totalled an estimated $7 trillion in 2022.
Trump’s climate-related actions
Ahead of Trump’s recent inauguration, and under by Republicans, major American withdrew from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) originally led by Canada’s as the United Nations’ Special Envoy for Climate Action.
The oil and gas industry donated more than , though donations provided by those with links to fossil fuels were estimated to be five times greater than that.
Trump’s more than 200 executive orders included a so-called , in which he:
· Withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, which he called joining only three other petro-states — Iran, Libya and Yemen — that are not signatories to the Agreement.
· Signed .”
· Signed a declaration that would allow his administration to fast-track permits for new infrastructure.
· Blocked all .
· Revoked former president Joe Biden’s order that
· Enabled new oil and gas development on federal lands, including reversing restrictions on petroleum extraction in
Elon Musk, among Trump’s closest billionaire allies, on the president’s 2025 exit from the Paris Climate Accord.
This is noteworthy because after Trump’s first withdrawal from the accord in 2017, Musk announced he was leaving presidential advisory councils, stating: “Climate change is real,
What’s ahead
Notwithstanding the Trump fossil fuels embrace, there are some silver linings.
Although the Trump snub of the COP climate conferences is generally seen as a setback, stronger climate action may now be possible without the U.S. at the table. Furthermore, many American states and municipalities will continue to push forward with aggressive emissions reduction measures. And thousands of against U.S. governments and corporations are underway.
Trump’s actions may also spur the migration of the U.S. renewables industry to Canada. Regardless, renewables .
A global movement of governments, elected officials, organizations and individuals has endorsed the Canadian-founded treaty initiative. Modelled on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it sets clear deadlines for the
At the 2025 World Economic Forum, Fortescue, a global metal mining giant, endorsed the treaty,
In his speech, Carney, , called climate change “the tragedy of the horizon.”
He warned that climate change will lead to financial crises and falling living standards unless the world’s biggest economies do more to ensure their companies come clean about their current and future carbon emissions.
, an Iranian-born Canadian human rights lawyer, served as legal counsel to the Commission of Small Island States at the recent where these nations presented evidence about the devastating impact of climate change on their citizens.
, Akhavan said: “What’s happening to the small island states today is going to happen to all of us tomorrow.”
Ultimately, the writing is on the wall for fossil fuels. It’s not a matter of if the world moves away from them dramatically, but when.
By Adjunct Professor Bruce Campbell, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, app
