The election of Republican Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States threw the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) into a state of anxiety, Elliot Diringer, executive vice president at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, said Monday in a published reflection.
The two-week event in Marrakesh, Morocco, began the day before the Nov. 8 election and ended on Friday. Its primary focus was on implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
“On the ground in Marrakech, like other veteran COP-goers from the United States, I found myself besieged by delegates desperate for insight into what had happened and, more importantly, what would happen now. I had precious little to offer,” Diringer wrote.
Trump might not torpedo climate action in the U.S. as many have feared, according to Diringer. “True, the incoming president had declared climate change a hoax and vowed to ‘cancel’ the Paris Agreement. But, I’d note, he’d also denied his climate denialism and, back in 2009, he’d signed an open letter in The New York Times supporting climate legislation. Plus, there were already signs he was tempering his views on other issues like immigration and health care,” he wrote.
Diringer noted other nations’ renewed commitments at COP22 in the face of the potential loss of U.S. climate leadership. The primary takeaway from the conference is that the rest of the world will soldier on in efforts to address climate change, with or without the United States, he said. “Against that uncertainty, it was heartening to hear country after country reaffirm its commitment to the Paris Agreement and to a low-carbon future,” Diringer wrote. “So for the moment, at least, the world is pressing ahead. But as we all head home from Marrakech, the uncertainty still looms. Should President-elect Trump make good on his campaign promise to withdraw from Paris, there is no denying that the consequences could be grave.”