Dear EarthTalk:

Why are environmental advocates so scared of Trump getting elected to a second term as President?

B.N., Philadelphia, PA

Since Joe Biden was elected president in 2021, his administration has made effective, albeit halting progress on combating climate change and giving the nation’s renewable energy industry the financial boost it needs to permanently establish its presence in America. He re-entered the Paris Climate Agreement, passed the most expensive climate legislation in U.S. history via the Inflation Reduction Act, and took hundreds of other positive environmental actions throughout his term as president.

Biden’s eco- efforts are far from perfect—the U.S. produced record levels of oil during his presidency, due to compromises he had to make to get his legislation passed—he has still achieved net positive gains for our environment. Based on what Trump has said about his plans for climate, and his troubling history of undoing environmental progress, the fear is that a second Trump presidency would reverse the progress made by Biden and demolish chances of reversing the worst effects of climate change before it’s too late.

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Earlier in 2024, the right-wing Heritage Foundation released Project 2025, which is a plan that outlines what Donald Trump’s team may aim to achieve during a second Trump term. In addition to abolishing the education department and limiting judicial power, Project 2025 aims to “reclaim” America’s dominance in the oil and gas industries, limit the power of environmental agencies and possibly repeal Biden’s most powerful climate legislation. These goals are certainly in line with Trump’s environmental rhetoric. At the beginning of his 2016 presidency, Trump rolled back dozens of environmental regulations on climate and conservation and pushed for increased oil and gas production. Trump has continued to deny the impacts of climate change and plans to loosen regulations placed on the gas and oil industry once again.

It's unlikely Trump would fully succeed in repealing all the climate legislation passed by Biden, but his push for increased carbon emissions would come at a dire moment in the ongoing crisis. The U.S. has a major role to play in achieving the Paris climate accord’s goal of keeping global temperatures from rising by 1.5 degrees Celsius before 2030. If emissions are not properly reduced, global temperatures and sea levels will continue to rise, leaving large areas of land uninhabitable and wiping out countless wildlife species and habitats. The actions taken in the next four years will have a monumental impact on the health of our planet, but a Carbon Brief report estimates that a second Trump presidency would add four billion tons of climate-warming gases to our atmosphere by 2030. A second Trump term would certainly take us radically in the wrong direction.

CONTACTS

• Environmental Ramifications of Another Trump Presidency, www.npr.org/2024/06/25/nx-s1-5006573/trump-election-2024-climate-change-fossil-fuels
• Project 2025’s Environmental Plans, thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4769252-project-2025-climate-change-energy-environment/.

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