Environmentalists are fretting over Donald Trump’s possible return to the White House.

“It would be a disaster for so many reasons,” John Noël, senior climate campaigner with Greenpeace USA, told Spectrum News.

During Trump’s presidency, his administration rolled back nearly 100 environmental rules, including protections for clean air and clean water. Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, in which more than 190 countries made commitments aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change. He skipped environmental discussions at G7 summits. And he appointed a former coal industry lobbyist to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

Trump is now vowing to take additional steps that environmentalists say are worrisome for the planet. 

“He's a real threat, certainly,” said Patrick Drupp, director of climate policy for the Sierra Club. “And I think we know what a second Trump term would look like for climate and the environment, and it's terrifying.”

A Trump sequel?

The page on Trump’s campaign website devoted to election issues makes just one mention of climate change — and that comes in reference to again pulling out of the Paris Agreement, which President Joe Biden had the U.S. rejoin in 2021.

Trump, whose campaign did not respond to an interview request for this article, says the accord imposes environmental standards that are “unfair” to American businesses and costs the U.S. “a trillion dollars,” a grossly exaggerated figure.

The presumptive Republican nominee also has vowed to try to repeal Biden administration policies aimed at bolstering the transition to electric vehicles, including tax incentives. Trump says those policies hurt the U.S. auto and oil and gas industries, and lead to higher car and fuel prices for consumers.

In addition, Trump has indicated he might gut the Interior Department — responsible for the management and conservation of federal lands and natural resources — and “environmental agencies,” which he says have “stopped you from doing business in this country.” 

As climate activists continue to urge the world to turn away from planet-warming fossil fuels as quickly as possible, Trump often speaks about “unleashing” American energy production and making the U.S. “energy dominant” by increasing domestic oil drilling, including on federal lands.

In April, Trump reportedly met with a group of oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and urged them to donate $1 billion to his campaign in exchange for policies favorable to their industry. Two Democratic-led Senate committees are investigating whether Trump’s request amounts to an improper quid pro quo.

“Trump already has a record on pretty much denying the climate crisis and repealing environmental regulations and essentially just clearing the path for fossil fuel expansion,” Noël said. “ … And so we know what he did last time, and we have an even better understanding of how backwards it could get.”

Trump’s environmental record in his previous term was largely defined by undoing policies implemented under former President Barack Obama.

Barry Rabe, an environmental policy professor at the University of Michigan, said he thinks Trump would deploy “a very aggressive use of presidential powers to reverse what has happened under Joe Biden.”

“And then perhaps trying to go even farther, now that there's new legislation [the Inflation Reduction Act], possibly freezing or impounding spending, other kinds of strategies, basically to take apart most of what the Biden administration or the Biden era has done,” Rabe said.

Meanwhile, a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups urges Trump in their Project 2025 plan to repeal climate change initiatives and spending if he is elected.

At Thursday night’s debate, Trump was asked if he would take any action to slow climate change. The former president said he wants clean water and clean air and that the U.S. “had the best environmental numbers ever” during his presidency without elaborating.

Trump did not cite any actions he took previously or planned to take in a second term aimed at combatting climate change.

Greenhouse gas emissions declined during Trump's presidency, but environmentalists say he does not deserve credit because his policies only loosened rules on pollution.

“The only existential threat to humanity is climate change, and he didn’t do a damn thing about it and he wants to undo all that I’ve done,” Biden said at the debate. 

Potential impact

In addition to potentially repealing or gutting Biden’s policies, environmentalists say the U.S. would cede its role as a global leader when it comes to climate change if Trump gets his way.

Noël said Trump’s policies would likely lead to the United States falling behind other countries on climate-related innovation and the jobs that go along with it. Trump often claims Biden’s climate policies are favorable to China, but economists say rescinding them would be a gift to Beijing.

“It's just sad that I feel like we are wasting an opportunity to create a new world where everyone has a good-paying job, everyone can provide for their family, and we do that all while addressing the climate crisis,” Noël said. “And we're just squandering that opportunity, and other countries are going to surpass us there in technology and really take advantage of the transition.”

Noël said a second presidency would also send an “incoherent message” to businesses that have already begun to transition to more environmentally friendly practices.

Drupp said a second Trump presidency would slow the implementation of desperately needed clean energy. 

“I think most of that gets halted,” he said. “I think renewables will still be deployed. Like, those industries aren't going to just go away overnight, I don't think. But there won't be a focus on them and there won't be any focus on actually reducing the pollution that is causing climate change.”

There is scientific consensus that humanity must quickly transition to renewable energy sources to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, including higher sea level that makes some coastal areas uninhabitable, tropical storms that are more intense and more frequent, heat that is more extreme, increased droughts that hurt food supplies, and more wildfires that threaten homes and businesses, environmentalists say.

Defending Trump

In his public comments, Trump often speaks of climate change with contempt. He’s called it a “hoax,” cast doubt on whether it has been caused by humans and said America’s young people are “irrationally terrified of political predictions of climate apocalypse.”

Despite his remarks, Republican political strategist Ford O’Connell says “it's a myth perpetuated by Democrats that Republicans hate the environment.” O’Connell cited as an example Trump securing $200 million in 2019 for Everglades restoration in Florida.

O’Connell said most Republicans, including Trump, want to address the needs of Americans while minimizing the impact to the environment, such as by using natural gas, which produces fewer emissions than oil and coal. Republicans don’t support most government-led green programs because they “believe that it should be the private sector that's adapting it to move forward,” he added.

For Trump, helping the U.S. economy and lowering costs for Americans are higher priorities, which is why he is calling for the expansion of oil drilling.

“What's the biggest issue in America right now? It is inflation,” O’Connell contended. “What is the easiest way to drive inflation down? And the answer is to flood the markets with energy, the world markets with energy.”

On the campaign trail, Trump often frames the issue as though federal climate initiatives are detrimental to the economy and lead to job layoffs. 

Noël finds that argument laughable.

“The engine of a thriving economy is innovation,” he said.

Climate Power, a left-leaning environmental advocacy group, said earlier this week that the Inflation Reduction Act that Biden signed into law in August 2022 has created more than 300,000 clean energy jobs. Other researchers have projected the law will create more than 5 million clean energy jobs over the next decade.

Fact check

Trump’s arguments defending his positions on climate chage are often accompanied by false or misleading claims. 

For example, he has accused Biden of squandering the country’s “energy independence” leading to higher costs for Americans, but U.S. oil production under Biden has outpaced the Trump administration, hitting an all-time high last year.

Trump also has falsely claimed “all” electric vehicles are built in China and that they can only be driven 15 minutes or an hour before needing to be recharged. Chinese EVs account for nearly 60% of worldwide sales, according to the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based energy consultant. The Electric Vehicle Database says the average driving range of an EV on a single charge is 236 miles, with some models traveling more than 400 miles. 

Trump has complained about Biden’s “EV mandate” that “everybody has to have an electric car.” While the Biden administration has implemented policies aimed at reaching the president’s goal of half of new vehicles being fully electric or a hybrid by 2030, he cannot impose such a mandate.

In 2019, Trump falsely claimed noises from wind turbines caused cancer. 

Biden’s climate record

Environmentalists and Rabe give Biden high praise for his work in dealing with climate change. 

“He's done what no other president has been able to do thus far,” Noël said. “And it's a great jumping-off point for the next administration.”

Added Rabe: “It really is a very significant record, both in the immediate term, but also longer.”

Those actions, at least some of which Trump would try to dismantle, are highlighted by the signing of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included hundreds of billions of dollars aimed at accelerating the transition to clean energy and electric vehicles. 

The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that Biden signed included more than $50 billion for climate resilience and adaptation.

The president also has signed executive orders that canceled the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline and set emissions reduction targets. He created a special envoy position dedicated to climate change, established the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy, started American Climate Corps to serve as a green jobs training program and launched the Office of Environmental Justice to protect underserved communities from environmental crimes, pollution and climate change.

Climate activists say Biden's record is not spotless, namely that he has not done enough to scale down oil production.