Trump's threat to Obama's environmental legacy
Barack Obama has been a very interesting international figure in the last decade or so. His administration has been dubbed by the global media as the presidency of powerful values but incomplete action. The political right condemns him for being too liberal, while the left attacks his conservative military policy. Yet he left office on January 20, with a higher approval rating than both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Even though Obama could be best described as a centrist with liberal values, the progressives of the modern world will praise him for his efforts in addressing global climate change.
There is no doubt that Obama has been the most proactive President in the history of the United States, when it came to prioritising environmental protection. Suffice it to say, Obama's administration successfully promoted the notion that protecting the environment was as important to the country as other macroeconomic objectives such as controlling inflation and boosting growth. This is not to say that all decisions undertaken by President Obama were pro-environmental. That is hardly the case. But he did create an important platform for this issue to take centre-stage in American society. Climate change policies should, in reality, get precedence over many of the issues America and the world concerns itself with. But to expect this is entirely utopian. The world is still premature when it comes to addressing climate needs. We still argue over whether global warming is real or not. We continue to be ignorant about reducing pollution. This is a sad tale. Yet Barack Obama did his best to put this sad tale, front and centre. Now his most time-critical achievement is at severe risk from his successor.
To name a few of Obama's successes with regards to environmental protection, his administration gave tangible support to the green economy, reduced carbon emissions from new cars by a billion tons and significantly abridged mercury discharges in power plants. Furthermore, amidst a Majority-Republican Congress, his government instituted key pieces of legislation to curtail strip mining, reduce methane emissions from natural gas operations, curb energy costs, regulate coal ash impoundments, ensure stricter air quality standards and protect wetlands. Obama's blocking of the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, an economic project which symbolises the extravagant use of fossil fuels, was well received by progressive intellectuals in the world. USA's leading efforts to negotiate the 2009 Copenhagen Accord and 2015 Paris Agreement is also seen as a victory of institutional climate change cooperation. This is something the world had never seen, especially in this magnitude, before. Even after all these successes, now ex-President Obama is surely pondering about the existential threat his achievements face from President Donald Trump.
Domestically, President Trump has not even taken a week to initiate what many environmentalists have termed as his war against the environment. Information pertaining to climate change has been erased from the White House website, whilst the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been asked to remove carbon-emission data from its webpage. His appointment of Republican donor Scott Pruitt as administrator of the EPA seems baffling. Least because he is the same man, who for some senseless reason, has doubts over the very legitimacy of the problems the EPA is expected to tackle. The institution which is expected to protect, promote and preserve the environmental accomplishments of the Obama regime is currently headed by a man who has his doubts over climate change. Furthermore, Trump has announced his plans to cut the EPA budget by USD 1 billion. In a cumulative sense, almost all of Obama's institutional reforms to protect the climate face a threat of survival. Frankly, it is entirely plausible to expect a one-eighty degree turn in EPA activities in the next four years. This turn will be, in no uncertain terms, a turn for the worst.
This is not all. The Keystone XL project is likely to be approved in the coming days, creating an emblematic transition of the US away from renewable energy and back to unsustainable resources. Trump also plans to eliminate the Clean Air Act which currently curbs greenhouse gas emissions. In an irrational move, President Trump also ordered all EPA funded scientific research on climate change to be bypassed through the White House before publication. This effectively guarantees the Federal Government's right to release whatever information they feel is appropriate and disapprove anything which makes the Trump administration look bad. How can the most important country in the world ignore the needs of a global phenomenon and simultaneously prevent intellectuals from making citizens aware of the threats of climate change? It is a question to which many Americans, let alone the world, have no answer. This is what the Trump Presidency is sadly looking like.
From an international angle, the repercussions are devastating. Dissemination of the historic Paris Agreement was a central message in Trump's campaign. Although a direct withdrawal from this agreement seems unlikely, recent reports suggest that he may significantly reduce UN-based climate change funding. It is expected that his administration will not play a significant part in addressing global climate change concerns. Henceforth, without the blessing and support of the most powerful country in the world, the hard-earned Obama-led environmental cooperation scheme is now under serious threat. Donald Trump continues to suggest that both domestic and global environmental regulations are out of control. He considers global warming a hoax created by the Chinese. If that is not concerning to the modern world, then nothing should be.
Bangladesh faces severe risks to its environmental future. Even though we are a developing country and even though we have diverse views regarding projects like Rampal, we do not in any way deny the credibility of the threat posed by climate change. Our government has been very clear in its intention to go ahead with the Rampal coal plant project despite vehement opposition from civil society groups and environmental activists. But the Awami League government has, at the same time, taken certain bold steps to ensure a more sustainable green economy. So when our ministers boast about how Donald Trump's presidency is going to be wonderful for Bangladesh, one would urge them to look at the facts. His philosophy of America First means greater economic protectionism and reduced leeway when it comes to bilateral and international affairs. His climate policy of lower international funding is surely going to hurt our path to a sustainable future, and there should be absolutely no doubt about that. Barack Obama did do his best to emphasise the threat which countries such as Bangladesh face from climate change.
Barack Obama and Donald Trump are two polarising figures for very different reasons. And the current President is on his way to tarnish the legacy of the former. This is a fact. To those who doubt Donald Trump's ability to pull-off his rhetorical election promises, think again. He has initiated the process to build his big and beautiful wall. He has announced his plans to reduce Muslim immigration. And most significantly, he has surely initiated the downfall of Obama's very real environmental achievements. Thus it would not be strange for global citizens to panic in regards to the Trump-led government, whose policies seem to be getting more discriminatory, intolerant, and yes, anti-environmental by the day.
The writer is a student of Economics and International Relations, University of Toronto
aftab.ahmed@mail.utoronto.ca