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This story was originally published by THE Tutor and is reproduced here as part of the Climate office collaboration.

Donald Trumpit’s new as the US president poses a grave threat to the planet if he blows up international efforts to curb dangerous global warming, stunned climate experts have warned following his term in office. decisive electoral victory.

Trump’s return to the White House is widely expected to lead the United States once again out of the Paris climate accord and could even remove all U.S. participation in the Nations’ underlying framework. United to tackle the climate crisis.

During his presidential campaign, Trump called climate change a “great hoax,” scorned wind power and electric cars, and pledged to gut environmental rules and the “new green scam” of climate change. ‘Inflation Reduction Act, a major bill passed by Democrats to support climate change. clean energy projects.

Trump’s agenda, analysts having foundrisks adding several billion tonnes of additional heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere, further undermining the goals to avoid disastrous global warming that governments are aiming for. already fail to meet. Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, said the United States is now a “failed democracy” and “we now represent a major threat to the planet.”

The election result will send shock waves through the annual UN climate talks which begin on Monday in Azerbaijan. “Electing a climate denier to the presidency of the United States is extremely dangerous for the world,” said Bill Hare, senior scientist at Climate Analytics, who warned that a Trump administration “would likely harm the effort.” aimed at preventing global warming by more than $1,000. 2.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, a Paris goal that now seems even further out of reach.

While Joe Bidenthe administration will send a delegation to Cop29 Summit next week, this situation will be overshadowed by the new Trump administration which threatens to divest from other major carbon emitters, such as China, to confront the climate crisis. “The nation and the world can expect the new Trump administration to destroy global climate diplomacy,” said Rachel Cleetus, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Across Europe, climate activists and politicians who favor stronger action to reduce pollution reacted with despair to news of Trump’s victory. “This is a dark day in the United States and around the world,” said Thomas Waitz, an Austrian MEP and co-chair of the European Greens party.

Luisa Neubauer, a German climate activist with the Fridays for Future movement who has been knocking on doors for Harris, likened the feeling to a bad breakup. “A decision about parts of the near future was made and most of us didn’t have a say,” she said. “And for a moment it feels like it’s the end of the world.” This is not the case. But the grief is real.

But they also urged supporters of climate action not to give up.

Areeba Hamid, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, said it was “an election won on corporate money, big polluters and misinformation”, but a global movement was already fighting to limit the damage.

“We simply don’t have any more time to waste,” she added. “Whatever the Trump presidency decides on global climate action, we know the damage can be limited if the adults in the room speak up. »

When he was the previous president, Trump took several months before deciding to withdraw the United States from the Paris agreement, raising fears that the agreement would fail. Countries managed to avoid such a fate before Biden re-entered the deal and there is some optimism that the transition to cleaner energy is not something Trump does, despite his demands that states -United “drill, baby drill” for oil and gas. , can be reversed.

“The US election result is a setback for global climate action, but the Paris Agreement has proven resilient and stronger than any country’s policies,” said Laurence Tubiana, executive director of the European Climate Foundation and one of the main architects of the Paris Agreement.

“The current context is very different from that of 2016,” she said. “There is powerful economic momentum behind the global transition, which the United States has led and benefited from, but now risks abandoning. The devastating toll of recent hurricanes is a grim reminder that all Americans are affected by worsening climate change.

Just as after the previous withdrawal, American cities and states committed to climate action will attempt to fill the void of federal indifference, acting as de facto representatives at global summits and even engaging with d other countries on how to reduce emissions.

“No matter what Trump says, the shift to clean energy is unstoppable and our country will not turn back,” said Gina McCarthy, a former Biden climate adviser and committee co-chair. America is at full tilt coalition of states and cities concerned about climate.

“Our coalition is larger, more bipartisan, better organized and fully prepared to deliver climate solutions, boost local economies and advance climate ambitions,” she said. “We cannot and will not let Trump stand in the way of giving our children and grandchildren the freedom to grow up in safer, healthier communities.” »

Nationally, environmental groups have said they will try to rally Democratsas well as some Republicansoppose Trump reverses climate policywhich is expected to include deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and loosening pollution rules for coal plants, cars and fossil fuel drilling. “President Trump will face a wall of bipartisan opposition if he tries to roll back clean energy incentives now,” said Dan Lashof, director of the World Resources Institute.

However, Trump’s election victory was a source of deep reflection for those concerned about the climate crisis. The question was barely defended by Kamala Harristhe Democratic nominee, with polling showing voters considered him a minor priority despite scientists’ warnings about record temperatures and two devastating ones, powered by heat hurricanes which hit the South-East just weeks before election day.

“This should be a wake-up call: The climate movement urgently needs more political power because the climate crisis is evolving infinitely faster than our current politics,” said Nathaniel Stinnett, founder of the Environmental Voter Project , who sought to force the party out. vote of environmentalists in the United States.

“We must work every day to build an invincible bloc of climate voters because we are running out of time.”