US top climate negotiator: ‘We won’t revert back’ as Trump prepares to receive over

BAKU, Azerbaijan — No matter what benevolent of U-turn President-Elect Donald Trump will make on climate transformation, America’s tidy vigor economy won’t reverse into the filthy history, a combative but “bitterly disappointed” top American climate negotiator said Monday.

During the first day of the U.N. climate talks, COP29, Climate Adviser John Podesta struck a defiant but realistic tone in a press conference. He said Trump will likely pull the United States out of the landmark Paris Agreement and try to roll back many of the Biden Administration’s signature climate moves, including the 2022 expense boost Reduction Act that included $375 billion in climate spending.

“Are we facing recent headwinds? Absolutely. But we won’t revert back to the vigor structure of the 1950s. No way,” Podesta said.

“Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable,” Podesta said paraphrasing a Biden talk last week. “This is not the complete of our fight for a cleaner, safer earth. Facts are still facts. Science is still science. The fight is bigger than one election, one political pattern in one country. This fight is bigger, still, because we are all living through a year defined by the climate crisis in every country of the globe.”

During the campaign, Trump said would pull America from the Paris Agreement, rollback parts of the IRA and boost drilling and oil production. He has called emissions regulations part of a “green recent scam” and claimed, without evidence, that offshore wind turbines damage whales.

During Trump’s first administration, between 2017 and 2021, many environmental regulations were rolled back, later to be reversed by the Biden administration. The incoming Trump administration has signaled it plans to now undo Biden’s changes.

During his press conference, Podesta ran through a shopping list of climate disasters, starting with the hottest day recorded, July 22, continuing with floods, hurricanes and droughts.

“None of this is a hoax. It is real. It’s a matter of life and death,” Podesta said. “Fortunately, many in our country and around the globe are working to prepare the globe for this recent reality and to mitigate the most catastrophic effects of climate transformation.”

Podesta said the Biden administration is still negotiating even as it prepares to leave.

“We are here to work, and we are committed to a successful outcome at COP29,” Podesta said. “We can and will make real advancement on the backs of our climate committed states and cities, our innovators, our companies and our citizens, especially youthful people who comprehend more than most that climate transformation poses an existential threat that we cannot afford to ignore.”

Another elder U.S. official, who spoke on the state of anonymity, said other countries are still working with American diplomats because they worry what the U.S. thinks and any agreement struck here must be by consensus. Outside analysts had speculated the U.S. would be ignored.

“In January, we’re going to inaugurate a president whose connection to climate transformation is captured by the words ‘hoax’ and ‘fossil fuels’,” Podesta said. “He’s vowed to dismantle our environmental safeguards and once again withdraw United States from the Paris Agreement. That is what he said. And we should depend him.”

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