Let’s not dismiss Trump’s address to the UN as just another rant
Donald Trump has spoken from the global pulpit. Speaking at the 80th Anniversary of the United Nations (UN), he has called climate change a “big con” and by association, all of us, who advocate for urgent action, charlatans. In his rant, he berated Europe for its green energy transition, saying it leads to high costs that would kill growth. He dismissed the science of climate change and went on to say that coal was clean. But I am not writing this to demean your intelligence and to explain why Trump is wrong. We know the reality of climate change as extreme weather events tear across our world, bringing with it economic devastation and human tragedy.
The question is, who was Trump really addressing when he spoke at the UN General Assembly? I believe this is what we must discuss. He was not speaking to the leaders in the grand room; he was not even speaking to the likes of you or me. He was speaking directly to the large numbers of ordinary middle- and working-class people, both in the rich world and the to-be-rich world, who believe that they have been cheated and deprived in the globalised economy. In their minds—and Trump would like to ensure this message is stamped—the problem is the “invasion” of immigrants, who they see as taking away livelihoods. It is about governments that are weak and allowing this to happen with impunity. It is then linked to the higher cost of living and declining real wages and the cost of green transition, which Trump says will lead to the downfall of the western civilisation. Windmills, which generate cleaner power and at lower cost than conventional systems, are blamed for driving down standards of living.
He wants this message to spread across the world, particularly, the western world, so that it turns against the “left loonies” (his words, not mine). We must see his message at the UN as a political effort to turn people towards the “right” and away from governments that believe in social justice and climate action.
Let us also be clear that there is deep resentment in the western world—which has led the economic growth and was the architect of the free-trade globalisation regime. Trump is taking it all to a boil so that he can bring about changes in the politics of the western world—at least in those few parts of the world that are still committed to the change the world so desperately needs. He wants those governments to fail so that the parties that stand against multilateralism, global solidarity and climate action can win. This is regime change at a scale never seen before.
And it is happening. Europe’s ambitious climate policy is facing headwinds. The European Commission failed to secure agreement on the next round of emission reduction targets. There is now increased resistance to these policies, and it is no surprise that there is also a growing shift towards parties that eschew climate change, much like Trump.
Donald Trump wants to accelerate this movement so that the world aligns with his side of the divide. Climate change has become a pawn in this political game, which is driven by hard economic interests in the business of energy and much more.
Trump needs to label and to dismiss the climate agenda as the work of “radical left loonies’’. This means that anyone who believes in the existential crisis caused by climate change, or even the need to clean up pollution from energy systems, is part of this “woke” brigade. It makes the rest of society take sides—and as it happened during the COVID-19 pandemic or even when the UK voted on whether to leave EU. It makes the issue toxic and makes it about the elite verses the rest. Worse, it demonises science and experts and portrays them as out of touch with the painful realities of ordinary people.
We must fight this branding as it does far more damage than Trump’s words of insult. For instance, we know as environmentalists in countries like India how such labelling can undermine our message and work. When we are called anti-development, it detracts from the fact that environment and development are two sides of the same coin.
This is why we have carefully and deliberately worked to ensure that climate change policies are part of the development strategies in our countries. For us, it makes sense to find pathways to economic growth that come without pollution. We know this. And we also understand that in our divided and unequal world, sticks and stones may break bones. It can destroy our common home—our Planet Earth. So, let’s not dismiss this address to the world as just another Trump rant. It is a carefully crafted strategy to destroy the very “rightness” of the idea of climate change.