A Timely Shot of Optimism For COP31
The Democrats’ thumping win in the US midterms has delivered renewed hope to countries that can now look beyond the Trump era of climate obstruction.
For the second year in a row, there will be no official US government presence at the annual climate summit, this year known as COP31 and being held in Turkey from 9 to 20 November. While almost every other country in the world sends delegations to the talks, Trump has consistently derided the climate crisis as a “hoax” and extracted the US from the entire international climate framework.
Democrats are keen to represent a new attitude to the international community, so about 20 members of the US Congress are heading to the summit. But they are paying for the trip themselves as the state department is refusing to fund them. “I’m glad we found a way to get there, but it is insane,” said Sean Casten, a Democratic congressman who is attending COP31. “We have a lot of rebuilding to do. It hinges on Congress to maintain diplomatic continuities at COP and minimize the damage until adults are back in the White House.”
Trump’s active support of fossil fuels, evisceration of pollution limits and throttling of clean energy projects has caused the US to become an outlier among wealthy countries, a recent UN report found. While all the other 20 major economies reduced or slowed their carbon pollution last year, the US was a “major exception” by emitting an extra 133m tons of planet-heating gases from the burning of coal, oil and gas, the report states.
The Democrats’ success in the midterms, taking control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, has buoyed delegates gathering in Turkey.
“This marks the beginning of the end of the Trump era,” said Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa. “His grip on Congress has been broken and hopefully paves the way for a Democratic president in two years. For everyone fighting for a liveable planet, this is a moment of renewed hope.”
Dr Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, told the Financial Times he expects to see a “climate action comeback” at COP31, adding: “I have rarely seen the energy security policy objectives and the climate objectives so closely aligned.”
