In a post-election press call, climate leaders from the World Resource Institute and the Biden administration shared insights into climate action during the next Trump administration.
The outcome of the U.S. presidential election has left the climate industry scrambling and riddled with questions about this new reality. The Biden administration’s investment in clean energy technology the mitigation of the climate crisis was unprecedented, but that is set to expire in January.
In an attempt to begin addressing the many questions and uncertainties present, the World Resource Institute hosted a press call Nov. 8 to address the implications of a second Trump presidency on both U.S. and global climate action. Below are some powerful, important, and informative quotes from the experts who led the call.
On the outcome of the election
“This is much less of a surprise than it was the last time in the global community. People have been looking at a very tight race over the course of the last number of months.”
— Jonathan Pershing, program director of environment at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the previous U.S. special envoy for climate during the Obama administration.
On the Paris Climate Agreement and international cooperation
“At one end, there’s a collection of countries that are looking at the need to continue moving forward on the Paris Agreement, that implies the vast majority of countries. I am struck by the last time this happened, not a single other country followed the United States in withdrawing from the [Paris Climate] agreement, which is what the Trump administration did and what it says it intends to do again this time. No one else followed suit and I don’t think anyone else will follow suit at this point either.”
– Pershing
“There’s bipartisan support for climate smart trade policy that is designed to promote U.S. production of clean energy, which we see is booming due to the investment from the Inflation Reduction Act, and ensure that domestic producers are not put at a disadvantage from producers that are emitting at higher levels.”
– Dan Lashof, U.S. director of the World Resources Institute.
“The EU sees [combating climate change] as a competitive need to move forward … and you see the same thing applying in places like India, where the dynamics of drought have fundamentally altered the trajectory and the cost to the farm community. And the costs also of importing oil into a country that doesn’t have its own reserves has led, not just because of climate change, but because of economic reasons, for India to set very high, stringent [emission] goals.”
– Pershing
“What we saw during the last Trump administration was states not only … playing on a domestic level but coming together at an international level and seeking to represent those in the U.S. who continue to not only believe that climate mattered, but put their money and their policies to work to implement that. And I think we’ll see that again.”
– Pershing
“There will be consequences.” – Lashof
“Eliminating the role of the U.S. and encouraging China to articulate and commit to a more rapid emission reduction over the next 10 years could have major consequences … It’s less about what’s going to be in the formal negotiations [during COP29] and more about the sort of bilateral and multilateral negotiations that take place between heads of state at the G20 and other forums.”
– Lashof
“The idea that the United States and its companies operate in a vacuum is incorrect. We operate in a global community where our investments are part of global investments, and return enormous benefits to the U.S., to shareholders, to workers, to the collective benefit of the United States. Watch that space.”
– Pershing
On operating at the federal level
“I know that my EPA colleagues and all the public servants across the government are standing ready to do their jobs, to follow the science and protect the rule of law.”
– Gina McCarthy, managing co-chair of America Is All In and former national climate adviser to President Joe Biden.
“This election result will not reverse progress on the path to a clean energy economy. At the same time, I think we do have to recognize that it will stall federal leadership at a time when we not only need to continue the progress we’ve been making but accelerate to fully confront the climate challenge. So I don’t want to be pollyannaish about it. There will be consequences.”
– Lashof
“One thing to keep in mind is that as much as there were attempts at rollbacks, and some rollbacks of regulations [during the last Trump administration], EPA agents over the past three years have been actively working to ensure that those [regulations] were rebuilt again and in a more secure way.”
– McCarthy
“Any attempt to roll back the IRA is simply a fool’s agenda … the [IRA] created more than 330,000 good paying jobs, and that’s union jobs in clean energy.” – McCarthy
“We need to push for private sector investments and work with others to fill the federal leadership gap in meeting our country’s global [climate] commitments.”
– McCarthy
On the IRA and clean energy credits
“Together, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPs and Science Act has led to $910 billion in public and private sector investments…the Inflation Reduction Act is good for business and good for all Americans. Any attempt to roll back the IRA is simply a fool’s agenda … the [IRA] created more than 330,000 good paying jobs, and that’s union jobs in clean energy.”
– McCarthy
“The core of the clean energy federal policy and the Inflation Reduction Act are tax credits that are self-executing. As long as they stay in law then businesses and individuals can take advantage of them to invest in renewable energy, to buy electric vehicles with those tax credits.”
– Lashof
“A majority of the [IRA’s] investment is going into districts represented by Republicans. So while I’m sure there will be lots of discussion in Congress about changing the IRA, I believe that the core tax credits will return, will be retained and will continue to drive investment.”
– Lashof
“There were more coal-fired power plants closed in the United States during the first term of the Trump administration than there were during the last term of the Obama administration.”
– Pershing
This article originally appeared on Trellis Group (formerly GreenBiz) as part of our partnership with the media and events company that accelerates the just transition to a clean economy.
