Shitstain Leaves Global Climate Talks; It Won't Change What's Coming, May Ease Other Nations' Efforts

Donald Trump’s latest attack on climate action takes place amid rapidly rising temperatures, rising sea levels, still-rising greenhouse gas emissions, burgeoning costs from extreme weather and the imminent danger that the world will trigger “tipping points” in the climate system that will lead to catastrophic and irreversible changes.

The US president’s decision to withdraw from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the world’s leading body of climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will not alter any of those scientific realities. Nor will it do much, at least in the short term, to alter the economic reality that the push to a low-carbon world is proving an engine of growth for scores of countries. Global investment in low-carbon energy now outstrips that in fossil fuels by two to one. Taking over Venezuela’s basket-case oil industry will make no perceptible difference.

Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief, said US citizens and companies would bear the impact. “It is a colossal own goal which will leave the US less secure and less prosperous,” he said. “It will mean less affordable energy, food, transport and insurance for American households and businesses as renewables keep getting cheaper than fossil fuels, as climate-driven disasters hit American crops, businesses and infrastructure harder each year and as oil, coal and gas volatility drives more conflicts, regional instability and forced migration.”

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Meanwhile, people living in the US will be confronted with increasing frequency with the effects of the climate crisis. Wildfires last January in California forced the evacuation of more than 200,000 people. Farmers are struggling with pests, drought and floods. Homes in some areas are becoming uninsurable, and extreme weather cost the US at least $115bn last year. The effects will be felt even by the president. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a former vice-chair of the IPCC, said: “The Palm Beach area of Florida, where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence is located, is among the areas most vulnerable to sea level rise due to global warming. The US is not immune to this problem.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/09/a-colossal-own-goal-trumps-exit-from-global-climate-treaties-will-have-little-effect-outside-us