Concerns after Trump's climate action: "Big risks"

TT

Published 15.10

 

            

            

           US President Donald Trump.

           1 / 2Photo: Evan Vucci/AP/TT

Donald Trump has torn up a ruling that classified greenhouse gases as a risk to public health.

It is a worrying decision, according to climate policy researcher Mathias Fridahl.

- This is a fairly significant change, he says.

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The US environmental agency EPA has worked since 2009 based on the so-called "endangerment finding" - a ruling that classified six greenhouse gases as a danger to public health.

Now US President Donald Trump has torn up the ruling. At the same time, the emission standards for greenhouse gases from vehicles are being abolished.

This means that a large part of the EPA's powers in the area are disappearing, according to Mathias Fridahl, who is an assistant professor at Linköping University.

– There are major risks surrounding Trump’s now so clear desire to seek short-term profits in the fossil-based economy, he says.

– Classifying greenhouse gases as harmful has allowed the agency much greater room for maneuver. Now that is disappearing.

“A big bluff”

On Thursday, Donald Trump called the decision “the biggest deregulation in American history” and rejected the scientific basis behind the 2009 decision as “a big bluff.”

It is rhetoric that could have major consequences, Mathias Fridahl fears.

– It is a much clearer climate skepticism and a greater contempt for science that he and his administration are expressing than during the previous term, he says.

– He is really taking the turns in a completely different way.

“It’s adding to the mess”

However, how big an impact the American decisions will have in the long term is difficult to predict, according to Mathias Fridahl.

However, Donald Trump's policies have already had a major impact on international climate work, not least when it comes to the financing of various collaborations.

- When such a large player drops out of the joint work, it is clear that it will mess things up, says Mathias Fridahl.

- In the coming years, we must find new ways to pursue climate leadership and a climate policy that is more resilient to such geopolitical changes.