Before assessing the impact of United States President Donald Trump’s climate and energy policies, some context about the current state of the planet is in order. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres recently called the world’s fossil fuel addiction “a Frankenstein’s monster sparing nothing and no one.”
The year 2024 was the first in which the average temperature exceeded the Paris Agreement threshold of 1.5°C. Under a status quo scenario, Earth is on track to reach an approximate 2.7°C increase in planetary warming by 2100.
The 2024 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report found that climate-related global health threats are reaching new records, including heat-related deaths, food insecurity and the spread of infectious diseases.
