Green stocks wobble as officials rush to respond and activists brace for the unknown. ‘It’s going to suck,’ one said.
Climate diplomats and top-ranking activists on Wednesday struggled to project calm as it became inevitable: Donald Trump is returning to the White House.
Trump — a man who has ridiculed climate concerns, promised to rip up U.S. participation in the Paris climate accord and vowed to extract fossil fuels without limit — will, once again, be a major determinant of whether the world slows climate change fast enough.
The morning of his victory, however, saw a barrage of statements talking down Trump’s likely impact on plans to slow greenhouse gas emissions, in an attempt to calm nervous clean technology markets and to present the transition as a fait accompli.
“Those investing in clean energy are already enjoying huge wins in terms of jobs and wealth, and cheaper, more secure energy. This is because the global energy transition is inevitable and gathering pace, making it among the greatest economic opportunities of our age,” said United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell.
The challenge is that the world isn’t moving quickly enough to prevent dangerous global warming, and any slowdown from the world’s second-largest emitter — itself a major driver of the global shift to clean energy — is bound to throw a wrench into global climate efforts.
Trump hinted at what was coming in his victory speech early Wednesday morning, touting America’s abundant supplies of “liquid gold.” Addressing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the environmental lawyer who appears likely to bring his unorthodox views on healthcare to the heart of a Trump administration, Trump said: “Bobby, leave the oil to me.”
Others rushed to convince markets that the smart money was still on the clean energy transition, highlighting that advancements in green technology over the past decade had made fossil fuels increasingly uncompetitive.
“Standing with oil and gas is the same as falling behind in a fast-moving world,” said Christiana Figueres, who served as the United Nations climate chief between 2010 and 2016.
