COP29: The US turn to the far right imperils climate justice and human rights

In Trump’s victory speech, he boasted that the US has more “liquid gold” – i.e. natural gas and oil – than any other country in the world, signaling again his support for fossil fuels. It is not surprising to know that Trump ran his campaign on the promise to leave the Paris Agreement a second time. For Trump, climate skepticism has always been wrapped up both in a desire to secure US economic dominance and an utter disregard for the Global South. He infamously called global warming a “concept created by and for the Chinese to make US manufacturing non-competitive.” He has echoed many times the belief that the US is unduly made to pay for countries in the Global South – what he once termed “shithole countries.” His denial of the climate crisis thus goes hand-in-hand with a much broader agenda of right-wing policies that inevitably will exacerbate inequalities on a global and domestic scale.

Biden shored up earlier policy efforts with comprehensive legislation in the last four years. State and local governments, tribal governments, businesses, and other actors continued to invest in the environment even during Trump’s first administration. Trump’s election now decisively affirms that the US is still lightyears away from being “the preeminent leader” on environmental issues. And yet, the lineage of activism and subnational action outlined here confirms the conclusion reached by my colleague Klaus Dingwerth that Trump’s election does not necessarily spell certain catastrophe for future climate politics and change.

Climate denialism and the legacies of racial imperialism 

The elephant in the room, however, is that not only is the United States’ incoming government no longer committed to international climate action, but it also simply doesn’t believe the science. There are no more moderate Republicans in office. Both on a domestic and international level, rolling back or defunding climate protections will harm racialized communities most, a consequence entirely compatible with the MAGA movement and – in some segments – white supremacist and nationalistic tendencies. 

Take the remark calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” uttered at Trump’s rally days before the election. Puerto Rico, a US territory, was ranked first in a 2019 report about countries most affected by climate change between 1999-2018, with hurricanes, rising sea levels, and other weather-related events all heaping devastating consequences on the archipelago over the last two decades. Haiti, the longstanding subject of Trump’s vitriolic anti-immigration rants ranked third in the same report. By casting these countries as mismanaged and unworthy of sympathy, it becomes a lot easier to justify extreme measures such as withholding any form of financial support that have far reaching implications for human rights beyond climate mitigation. 

America First means taking no responsibility for the fate of other nations, let alone acknowledging US complicity and role in exacerbating climate change. During Trump’s first administration, his spokesperson called spending money on international climate measures “a waste of your money.” It is precisely this lack of financial resources within these nations – a direct consequence of colonialism and imperialism – that makes the redistributive climate financing proposed at COP29 so crucial to a global agenda. 

On a domestic level, environmental justice activists have long pointed out that marginalized communities are harmed more by environmental issues. For example, one key beneficiary of US federal funding for climate initiatives under Biden have been Indigenous tribes. As European settlers pushed westward, they forced indigenous peoples into some of the most arid and inhospitable parts of the new nation – the same parts that today are extremely vulnerable to extreme weather events, from droughts to tornadoes to fires. 

Under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, as well as bilateral collaborations between the federal government and tribal governments, indigenous tribes received substantial funding specifically for climate change planning under tribal sovereignty. With Trump now vowing to terminate this act, Indigenous peoples will once again be at the mercy of federal institutions. 

The limits of COP29

Climate denialism, as advocated by the incoming US government, brings into sharp relief that action on the climate crisis cannot be separated from histories and legacies of colonialism, extraction, and warfare. As such, it speaks to other issues that cast a shadow over the COP29 negotiations: for Palestine, the talks in Baku will not make a difference. Over the last year, Israel has committed what environmental experts call an ecocide; razing farms, destroying olive trees, and cutting territories off from water sources, effectively rendering the land entirely unlivable for generations to come. In the absence of international action, these ecosystems have already been damaged beyond repair, evidencing further that international concern and care for our changing world only extend as far as the limits of geopolitical permissibility will let it. Inaction is always a form of action, a political choice. Here, the US election outcome was a rather trivial matter, as both Harris and Trump firmly charted a geopolitical course that unequivocally favors Israel. 

At COP29 so far, where the Taliban has a seat at the table as one of the 198 parties but the “Palestinian territories” are merely there as an observer, these issues have not been featured. This drives home what it all pivots on: namely, that the success of COP29 is not just about the environment. As one of the activists who gathered in the COP29 venue on its opening day summarized it, “there can be no climate justice without human rights.” 

Prof. Ph.D. Suzanne Enzerink is assistant professor of American Studies in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of St.Gallen.

Image: COP29