Ibrahim Alamu 
DONALD TRUMP
Political transition in the US usually comes with many implications, which are reflected in social, ideological, economic, and diplomatic decisions.
The issue of climate change is very important in the transition of the United States, particularly with the return of President-elect, Donald Trump to power.
Many reports from the news media, including official documentation of the US government, have given credit to President Joe Biden, for taking some of the most decisive actions for climate resilience, and are believed to have been continuity from where President Barack Obama stopped.
Under Biden, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s climate support partnership grew to 45 countries globally, with an emphasis on measures that enforce ambitious emissions reduction measures, protect vital ecosystems, promote the transition to electricity from renewable sources, develop resilience against the adverse effects of climate change, and foster the flow of capital towards climate-positive investments.
Biden passed different climate change legislation with unprecedented success. During his first year in office, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was passed.
Among other things, the act requests an extra $58 billion to decarbonise the power sector and an additional $7.5 billion to develop the infrastructure for charging electro mobility. There was the CHIPS and Science Act, which Biden signed into law in August 2022.
The Act would allocate $280 billion to boost semiconductor manufacture and research between 2023 and 2027. Research results have shown that semiconductors are essential to climate-friendly energy alternatives such as renewable energy sources and electric cars.
Essentially, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a historic piece of climate legislation, has been the Biden administration’s greatest achievement. This law provided an unprecedented $370 billion in support for the energy transition and climate change.
The money will be distributed over 10 years in the form of grants, loans, loan guarantees, and tax incentives for technologies like carbon capture and utilisation (CCU), hydrogen, EVs, renewable energy, and CCS.
Due to the growing demand for clean technology, especially electric vehicles, the budgetary cost has lately been predicted to be $1.2 trillion, and there is no spending cap.
Calculations show that if the IRA alone decreases emissions by 32–42%, the US may get much closer to its climate target by 2030.
Different from the trajectory of climate decisions during the administration of Joe Biden, it is trending across the news media that President-elect Trump is prepared to expand on the ideas he implemented during his first term in office, which include lower taxes, fewer government, and a focus on states’ rights.
Additionally, it is anticipated that the newly elected president and his administration will address several Biden Administration foreign policy, immigration, and environmental initiatives.
Some of these policies could be enacted by executive order in the initial days and weeks of a second Trump Administration. The incoming president, Trump, has promised to carry out his aggressive deregulation policies, which include mandating that several existing regulations be repealed for each new one proposed.
He has also declared his intention to “stop the flow of American tax dollars that are subsidising Chinese electric vehicle battery companies” and to revoke the regulations implemented to promote EV adoption during the Biden administration.
Additionally, he has declared his intention to ban investments in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. The incoming president had called climate change a “hoax” and withdrew the US from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
President-elect Trump has pledged to withdraw again, even though President Biden re-enrolled in 2021. Just after his current emergence for a second term, Trump has made very assertive statements about repealing the climate policies put in place by Biden, the outgoing US President. This kind of statement in the media usually should not be taken at face value.
What needs to be taken into consideration are the possibilities of enhancing the involvement of the US government in climate action, both as an objective measure to sustain both the US environment and a concerted effort, at the global level, to make the planet Earth a safe and hospitable place to thrive.
Therefore, the Trump administration should not simply set out to abolish all that Biden had erected as climate protection frameworks. However, Trump’s administration should seek out the ambitious yet unrealistic climate commitments and find a way to modify the involvement of the United States in climate financing.
The focus of the new government, therefore, should be on what climate actions mean, not only to the finances of US citizens but to the safety of America as a place where people of all races, with legal reasons to come in, could thrive. This will indeed be part of a broader and cardinal achievement that will make America Great again.
The climate discourse in the media usually falls victim to the ‘danger of a single story’. The lens through which the implications of climate protection are viewed, particularly as a governmental effort, usually has tendencies of politicisation.
In the real sense, however, if there is any politics at all that should come into play in pursuit of climate objectives; it should be a progressive politics that gives priority to global leadership. America, being a land of opportunities, cannot afford to lessen its commitment to climate efforts, globally.
Outside of Europe, the leading Asian countries are taking bold steps to make their environment hospitable and habitable to a global demography.
For example, the UAE came up with 11 targets for climate protection and has demonstrated a willingness to continue to pursue sustainable policies to mitigate the negative trends of climate change.
