Trump dismantles Obama's climate policy

Donald Trump has signed an order aimed at reversing the US's climate policy. He wants to gradually dismantle the 2015 Clean Power Plan with which Obama wanted to cut the CO2 emissions of coal-fired power plants. How disastrous will the impact of this departure from international climate protection targets be?

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El Mundo (ES) /

An utterly irresponsible about-face

After his recent failures in domestic politics Trump is plunging into a campaign against international climate policy, El Mundo surmises:

“Trump is effectively withdrawing from the obligations assumed by the US in the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, which was signed and ratified by 195 states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. … The signing of this agreement by the US and China was considered a milestone in the fight against climate change. Trump's disastrous decision, which demonstrates once more a complete lack of any sense of responsibility, puts the health of the entire planet in danger even though his order won't take effect for some time to come. The US president's move is more of a political than a practical nature and is aimed at pleasing his voters after his order on immigration was suspended and his attempt to reform Obamacare failed.”

Die Welt (DE) /

Society will fight for climate protection

Trump's decision is not such a bad thing, Die Welt counters:

“Trump dismantling a few environmental protection rules won't trigger a renaissance of dirty coal. Then there's the fact that with over 40 billion dollars in investments renewable energies has become big business in the US. And Trump's party colleagues also benefit from this business. … If Trump tries to bring down the eco-power providers, not only will this affect the interests of many states in the US, he will be taking on the industrial sector. More than 60 of the US's largest companies have joined a buyers' initiative for eco-power, including General Motors, Lockheed Martin and Walmart. They cite surveys as their motivation. Even a majority of Trump's voters think climate protection is a good thing. So consumers, industry and his own voters want clean energy. Even Trump will find it difficult to ignore all that.”