U.S. election is a gut punch to the planet
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last night, during the early days of the 22nd Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Marrakech, Morocco, Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States of America. New leadership for the world’s largest historic emitter of greenhouse gas pollution will have profound impacts not only for the United States but also for how the entire world grapples with climate change. During the campaign, President-elect Trump said that he would “cancel the Paris climate agreement.” He also tweeted that “the concept of climate change was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
Friends of the Earth U.S. Climate and Energy Director Benjamin Schreiber made the following statement about the impacts that the election could have on international climate action:
Yesterday’s election left all of us in the United States climate movement stunned. Millions of Americans voted for a coal-loving climate-denier willing to condemn people around the globe to poverty, famine and death from climate change. It seems undeniable that the United States will become a rogue state on climate change.
Technicalities aside about whether President-elect Trump can remove the U.S. from the Paris agreement, it’s clear that for the next four years, the U.S. government is unlikely to be a partner in global climate action. The U.S. will likely make international climate protection efforts more difficult and that is why the rest of the world can no longer wait for U.S. action. Friends of the Earth U.S. is calling on the world to use economic and diplomatic pressure to compel U.S. leaders to act.
We are committed to fighting President-elect Trump and the xenophobia, racism, Islamophobia and sexism he embodies. Friends of the Earth will continue to build the movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground to protect the climate.
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Contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, [email protected]