Former UN Climate Chief Claims a Trump Presidency Promises Regression for Climate Policies

A Mexican diplomat is warning U.S. voters of dire consequences should Donald Trump win a second term in the White House. Patricia Espinosa, from 2016-2022 the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — considered by many to be the top UN climate post — is warning Americans that a Trump election could spell doom for the climate.

Espinosa has served as a diplomat for Mexico for more than 30 years, and is the founder of onepoint5, an ESG consultancy whose webpage proclaims, “We have 7 years to transform our world.” Espinosa’s remarks on a potential Trump second term were published in The Guardian last week.

Recent polling in the presidential race shows Republican Trump and likely Democratic nominee President Joe Biden in a statistical dead heat ahead of their possible November showdown.

“I worry [about a second Trump term] because it would have very strong consequences, if we see a regression regarding climate policies in the US,” Espinosa said.

In his first term, Trump drew the ire of globalists such as Espinosa by largely ignoring climate change as an issue and taking the America out of the Paris climate accord. As president, he repeatedly said that the agreement put the United States at a disadvantage economically, and blasted the agreement when announcing the U.S. withdrawal in 2017.

“As President, I can put no other consideration before the well being of American citizens,” he proclaimed in a Rose Garden ceremony. “The Paris Climate Accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers — who I love — and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production.”

It’s that sort of America-first attitude that Espinosa fears.

“We are not yet aligned to 1.5C. That’s the reality. So if we see a situation where we would see regression on those efforts, then [the likelihood of staying within 1.5C] is very limited. It would certainly be a much bigger risk,” Espinosa said. “We could see a slowdown, an even bigger slowdown [in action to reduce emissions], which would unfortunately probably take us to an even more terrible scenario, unless we see strong leadership coming from other places, [such as] Europe.”

Of course, that’s good news for those of us who see the climate agenda for what it is — a blatant and well-organized effort to bring about world socialism by claiming that the world is doomed otherwise. But for Espinosa it would be a tragedy. “What happens in the US has a very big impact in so many places around the world,” she said.

But even Espinosa realizes that the U.S. withdrawal from the ineffective Paris accord meant little to the rest of the world.

“When President Trump announced that [the U.S.] would withdraw from the Paris agreement, there was a certain fear that others would follow, and that there would be a setback in the pace of the climate change process. Not only did that not happen but some countries that had not yet adhered to the Paris agreement did so,” she said. “As of now, I don’t see countries really going back. I think that the process will continue.”

However, Espinosa decried a lack of leadership on the climate issue, not just in the U.S., but globally. “We are seeing a lack of leadership, including in the big countries that can make contributions.”

Why would any nation be inclined to take aggressive climate action when they see the two most populous nations in the world, India and China, building new coal-powered facilities at an alarming rate? What’s the incentive when they know any emissions reductions will be offset by two nations?

Espinosa also claimed that climate realists are gumming up efforts to “decarbonize” the world. “In the US, we see a very well organized and very strong campaign intending to reduce the perception of the critical nature of action that needs to be taken,” she observed.

The stronger that campaign, the better. Only in a world that insists upon freedom can freedom truly be attained. Freedom will be a dead concept if the climate zealots have their way.