What Trump 2.0 Means for the Climate

On the surface, climate policy couldn’t face a worse future than under a second Trump administration. As a candidate, Trump said on his first day back in office: “I want to drill, drill, drill.” So, what are environmental organizations, including those aligned with the Republican party, doing to keep making progress on addressing climate change? And what do Trump’s cabinet picks say about the incoming administration’s attitude toward energy policy? 

Abigail Dillen

President, Earthjustice

Heather Reams

President, Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions

Leah Stokes: 2024 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication
December 9, 2024 | 6:00 p.m.
Climate One is delighted to present the 2024 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication to political scientist Leah Stokes.

Stokes is an expert in climate and energy policy. As both an academic and a mobilizer, she focuses on implementing policies that drive widespread decarbonization. Her rare ability to communicate complex information to both academic audiences and the general public has established her as one of the most influential voices in climate action and clean energy policy. Recognized on the 2022 TIME100 Next and Business Insider's Climate Action 30 lists, she also co-hosts the podcast “A Matter of Degrees.”

Join Climate One for this special in-person conversation with Leah Stokes, policy expert, climate communicator, and the Anton Vonk Associate Professor of Environmental Politics at UC Santa Barbara.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is in session this week to hear a case brought by the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. After more than five years of advocacy from Pacific island countries such as Vanuatu and Fiji, the court has scheduled more than 100 testimonies from government representatives and intergovernmental organizations to determine how and when nations must act in the face of climate change.

Coming on the heels of COP29, which many developing states criticized as a failure, the ICJ case is viewed by the small island states of the Pacific as perhaps their final opportunity to force the international community to act before rising sea levels cause irreversible damage. While rulings by the ICJ are not binding in the way a domestic court’s rulings are, many nations adopt international law into their own legal codes, which has nations like Vanuatu hopeful that ICJ’s affirmation that nations must reduce their emission levels could be enough to prevent catastrophic sea level increases.

The concept of bringing climate change to the ICJ was first floated by high school students across the Pacific. Supporters formed the group Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change and lobbied their national governments to bring the case to the ICJ, a path that mirrors youth-led efforts to bring court cases against the government for inaction against climate change in states like California, Montana, Hawaiʻi and Utah. Other international courts, including the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the European Court of Human Rights, have issued rulings this year in favor of requiring countries to actively reduce their emissions.

PLUS:

December is end-of-year list season, and Prospect’s 2025's Top Thinkers for an Uncertain World list is a great one. The magazine named author Rebecca Solnit as one of their five top climate thinkers for the year ahead, touting her global approach to climate change and her impactful writing on the topic.

Last fall, Solnit sat down with Co-Host Ariana Brocious to make the case that we’re far from too late to act on the climate crisis. Drawing from decades of writing about the world, Solnit argued that not only do we still have time to prevent climate disaster, but that giving up now would be unforgivable. You can listen to her wise words today wherever you find your podcasts.

Source: Canary Media

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