Top Biden climate diplomat criticizes Trump at UN summit
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Podesta speaks in Baku. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
John Podesta, lead climate diplomat representing the U.S. at the UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday called the presidential election outcome "bitterly disappointing."
Why it matters: President-elect Donald Trump may make it harder for other nations to commit to making aggressive emissions cuts and climate finance commitments.
- Trump is likely to bring about the country's second withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change, struck in 2015.
- It's also possible that Trump could try to take the U.S. out of the UN climate negotiating process altogether.
Zoom in: Podesta criticized Trump for his denial of human-caused climate change: "In January, we're going to inaugurate a president whose relationship to climate change is captured by the words "hoax" and "fossil fuels."
- He ran down a list of major climate disasters in recent months, noting that "science is still science" and that the era of climate change consequences has already arrived.
- The coming U.S. pullback from UN climate talks under Trump is more difficult for other countries to accept, Podesta said, since the effects of climate change are so evident now, even compared to the U.S. withdrawal from Paris in 2017.
The big picture: Podesta noted that countries committed to the Paris Agreement have been disappointed by the U.S. tendency to be all-in under one president and then back away under the next.
- "I know that this disappointment is more difficult to tolerate as the dangers we face grow ever more catastrophic, but that is the reality," he said.
Yes, but: Podesta portrayed the economics propelling clean tech development and deployment as unstoppable. He noted that Biden's climate law, also known as the Inflation Reduction Act, is politically shielded from repeal.
- As for COP29, he said one key U.S. goal is to enlarge the group of countries providing assistance to developing nations for climate adaptation and mitigation purposes, to include China.
