TRUMP’S re-election is “devastating” and “detrimental” to tackling global warming, but Scotland remains a climate champion, a Scottish university professor has said.
The renewed president is hellbent on overturning efforts made by the Joe Biden administration to tackle this evermore pertinent issue that ails our planet.
Since his inauguration on Monday, Donald Trump has been slashing his signature through a slew of executive orders, and climate action – or rather retraction – was one of the issues at the top of his agenda as he sat back down in the big chair for his first week.
The reinstated leader wants to “drill, baby, drill”. He’s declared a national energy emergency burning with the intention to restoke the US’s fossil-fuel industry, discharged Biden’s executive order to make half of all new vehicles sold in the country by 2030 electric and once again withdrawn the US from the Paris climate agreement.
Jaime Toney is a professor of environmental and climate science at the University of Glasgow, and she’s not feeling easy about Trump.
The professor said: “It’s really disheartening to see a leader come in and not only step down from the Paris Agreement, but actually take actions that are directly in conflict with the goals that the global community is trying to take around climate change.
“To have somebody who is directly trying to counteract net zero and put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is devastating.
“If new forms of oil and gas are being taken out of the ground then that’s really scary and detrimental to where we need to be moving in terms of global warming.”
How the US acts on the issue of climate change is significant to everyone everywhere; as Trump slackens the country’s grip on the problem, he has the real potential to make it a greater challenge for the rest of the world.
The US is guilty of 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions – after China, this makes the land of the free the second biggest polluter in the world.
Professor Toney said: “The US has played a large role in negotiations and facilitating conversations about climate change that happen at the international level.
“I think it should still be seen at the table having those conversations.”
As Trump charts a new course on climate action, each country becomes obligated to reflect on its own position concerning this world issue – including Scotland.
Talking about the impact of global warming on Scotland, the climate expert said: “Scotland faces a unique set of issues, everything becomes warmer and wetter, particularly in the winter season.
“If we start thinking about extreme events – everything from windstorms and more precipitation during individual weather events – how we deal with those changes becomes daunting to think about.”
Different parts of the country face different environmental outcomes as climate change intensifies, according to the professor – from flooding and erosion in coastal communities to the relative effectiveness of city residences.
She said: “The extent of floods is predicted to be quite extreme moving out towards the next 20 to 50 years.
“We’ve been doing some research into the River Clyde because it has the combination of flooding events and being connected to the ocean.
“And in Glasgow, for example, the tenement flats aren’t really conducive to mitigate warmer temperatures that we’re going to see during the summers.”
Last year was the hottest year on record and the first year to pass the 1.5C global warming limit set by the Paris Agreement. Crossing this threshold increases the risk of greater severity in climate change events such as droughts, heatwaves and rainfall.
Professor Toney said: “It’s the consensus of the scientific community now that we’ve basically missed our opportunity to keep the global climate below 1.5C, anything that takes us any further towards warming is really dangerous.
“Most of the major issues, like the extinction of 99% of warm water corals, lie beyond that 1.5C threshold, so any new oil and gas carbon emissions that aren’t being reduced and instead increased are really problematic.”
Trump’s decision to roll back the US’s input on tackling climate change comes from scepticism and outright rejection of the issue. He called the Paris accord a “rip-off” and at a rally at the Capital One Arena vowed to “end the green new deal” which Biden began.
Professor Toney said: “I thought as a researcher for decades now that we had gotten past that climate denial.”
But by taking this step back, Trump intends to boost the country’s economy. He previously said: “We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.”
For the climate professor, Trump’s outlook is not conducive to the planet’s future.
She said: “We need leaders who are comfortable in recognising that they don’t know it all. Leaders who aren’t these big charismatic figures coming forward, who can give time and thought to complex problems and listen to experts.
“The Trump campaign has been successful by playing on people’s discontent, their fears of the future, and making unrealistic promises about changes that will benefit them.”
The good news is Scotland doesn’t seem to suffer from Trump’s ignorance of global warming, in Professor Toney’s opinion.
She said: “In Scotland, we’re in a very different position. It’s not a matter of whether the people believe in climate change or not, a large majority agree that it’s happening.
“I don’t see the US stance shifting the Scottish Government in any major way, they’ve been very progressive about setting targets around climate change, I don’t think Trump has any agency over how the Scottish people think.”
Scotland finds itself in a strong position to combat climate change as it benefits from being a small nation – making the issue more manageable.
This allows experts and researchers like Professor Toney to have direct access to advising the government.
The climate expert said: “Scotland holds most of the natural systems in terms of forests and peatlands that need to be restored across the UK.
“We’re well positioned to lead the way in terms of getting to net zero and lowering carbon emissions.”
The Glasgow University professor indicated a sense of pride and optimism for Scotland, which is more than could be said for elsewhere: “A lot of what’s important in this space is the political will to make the changes that we need to make, clearly that’s not going to be led by the US.”
