It’s perhaps an understatement to say that the election of Donald Trump will seriously complicate international efforts to combat climate change.
Trump has called climate change a “hoax,” he pulled the United States out of the 2015 Paris climate accord during his first term and has said he would do so again. He has also pledged to expand oil and gas production, eliminate subsidies for clean energy and electric vehicles, and roll back regulations aimed at reducing planet-warming emissions.
Without American leadership on these issues, many countries around the world may be less likely to invest in the energy transition and to try to reduce emissions.
On Wednesday morning, I spoke to Ajay Banga, the president of the World Bank, to get his response to the news and his view on where the world goes from here. The bank, which is overseen by big countries — including the United States, Russia and China — distributes tens of billions of dollars in loans each year to help developing nations build their economies and adapt to climate change.
Banga said in the wake of Trump’s re-election, making strides in the rest of the world will be more important than ever. “It was never an America-only game,” he said. “It was always a developed world and middle-income-country game.”
If countries like India, Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam don’t rapidly reduce their emissions, Banga said, the world will keep heating up, regardless of what happens in the United States.