Trump to
World: Green Energy Is a Scam and Climate Science Is From ‘Stupid People’
In a
remarkable United Nations address, the president lashed out at wind turbines,
environmentalists and allies around the world while dismissing the dangers of
climate change.
Somini
Sengupta Lisa Friedman
By Somini
Sengupta and Lisa Friedman
Sept. 23,
2025
President
Trump went on a rant against climate change at the United Nations General
Assembly on Tuesday, calling it the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the
world” and saying that the scientific consensus on global warming was created
by “stupid people.” He also berated countries, including close allies of the
United States, for adopting renewable energy.
It added
up to an extraordinary diatribe that ignored the human suffering exacted by the
heat waves, wildfires and deadly floods that are aggravated by the burning of
fossil fuels and, at the same time, stood at odds with the rapid expansion of
renewable energy all over the world.
He chose
his two targets, demonizing immigrants and green energy, and called them a
“double-tailed monster” that he claimed, without evidence, are “destroying”
Europe. Both subjects play well to his base in the Republican Party. But it was
remarkable that he said all this to a global audience.
“You need
strong borders and traditional energy sources if you’re going to be great
again,” he said. “I worry about Europe, I love the people of Europe. I hate to
see it being devastated by energy and immigration.”
His
attacks on clean energy appear to be part of an effort by the White House to
derail European Union’s legally binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas
emissions and stoke a political backlash against Europe’s clean energy
advances.
Wind and
solar power are generally among the cheapest forms of energy in much of the
world, according to independent energy analysts, and global investments in
renewables exceed investments in coal, oil and gas.
“Trump
continues to embarrass the U.S. on the global stage and undermine the interests
of Americans at home,” Gina McCarthy, who served as the United States climate
policy director in the Biden administration, said in a statement. “He’s
rejecting our government’s responsibility to protect Americans from the
increasingly intense and frequent disasters linked to climate change that
unleash havoc on our country.”
Taylor
Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, defended Mr. Trump’s comments and said in a
written statement, “Whether it’s called global cooling, global warming, or
climate change, the radical climate agenda continues to destroy many great
countries around the world.”
On his
first day in office, Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris
Agreement, a voluntary pact among nearly 200 nations to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. It is the only country to have done so. His administration also has
thwarted renewable energy projects, stripped federal incentives for wind and
solar power and removed climate-science data from government websites. It has
also commissioned a report downplaying the consequences of climate change.
European
lawmakers see the expansion of clean energy as a way to ensure energy security
and not rely on the imports of oil and gas. Mr. Trump, on the other hand, has
urged Europeans to buy more U.S. oil and gas. The administration has received a
pledge from the European Union to buy $250 billion in U.S. energy every year
through the rest of the president’s term in exchange for some relief from
tariffs.
The
United States is already the world’s leading exporter of natural gas and the
biggest producer of oil, and the Trump administration is encouraging new
development. Mr. Trump has also signed executive orders to expand the burning
and mining of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.
According
to overwhelming scientific consensus, the burning of coal, oil and gas has
raised the average global temperature by well over 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8
degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the preindustrial era, and has exacerbated
deadly heat, fires and floods.
He
referred to global warming as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated” and
upbraided world leaders for sticking to an international agreement to limit
global temperature rise and transition away from fossil fuels. The moment was
all the more remarkable because the United States is responsible for the
largest share of global emissions since the Industrial Revolution.
The New
York Times is tracking the Trump administration’s actions in its first 100
days. This link is set up to show the ones that focus on climate, but you can
explore other categories, too.
“I’ve
been right about everything and I’m telling you that if you don’t get away from
the green energy scam, your country is going to fail,” he said.
Mr. Trump
assailed environmentalists for wanting to “kill all the cows,” a claim for
which there is no evidence. Cattle produce methane emissions, a potent
greenhouse gas, and for that and other reasons, some environmentalists have
urged people to eat less meat.
The
speech lasted 56 minutes, more than three times longer than the 15-minute limit
on remarks by world leaders on the General Assembly podium. He criticized
countries in Europe, including Britain, where he received a royal welcome last
week, for expanding their renewable energy infrastructure.
Germany,
he claimed, “was being led down a very sick path both on immigration by the way
and energy.”
Jennifer
Morgan, who has served as Germany’s climate change envoy, said European
countries saw clean energy as a way to ensure their energy security and to
expand their economies. To build a strong Europe, she said, it is necessary to
“tackle climate change to avoid people having to leave their homes.”
One of
Mr. Trump’s longer digressions involved the idea of “a carbon footprint,” the
notion that individuals or groups, through their actions, produce varying
amounts of greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide. He called it “a hoax
made up by people with evil intentions.”
The term
was popularized years ago by oil companies as part of a rebranding effort.
Somini
Sengupta is the international climate reporter on the Times climate team.
Lisa
Friedman is a Times reporter who writes about how governments are addressing
climate change and the effects of those policies on communities.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário