Climate change needs smart solutions, not political point-scoring

Arab News

2 days ago

https://arab.news/r8ms4
More than seven months into President Donald Trump's second term, the US is experiencing a sharp federal reversal on climate policy: withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, rollback of clean energy initiatives, and a halt to key climate finance programs. The reaction of Western 'scholars and watchdogs' to the moves was summed up recently by a columnist in the UK's Guardian newspaper who put this way: 'It's an agenda that in only its first six months, has put back environmental progress by decades.'
But there is another way to look at the US climate-policy reversal: as a golden opportunity to transform climate change from a First World wedge issue into a universal challenge in which both the global North and South have equal stakes. And to seize it, countries, cities, businesses and ordinary people must adopt an organic, 'whole of society' approach in the form of carbon literacy, lifestyle shifts, technological innovation and international cooperation.
It is easy to forget that climate change is neither a political theater nor a liberal luxury, but a human issue. Record heat this summer has once again scorched the Arab world, Europe and Asia, while devastating floods and wildfires have dominated news headlines. The consequences of more frequent hot days, fewer cold days and increased evaporation transcend national boundaries and public concern has reached historic highs across the spectrum.
Extreme heat is the biggest climate-change danger facing large swathes of the world. Mild summers in Europe are being replaced by heat waves that are becoming more frequent. Adapting to it is expected to require huge investments and a major shift in attitude toward air conditioning. Instead of dismissing it as a luxury that only Americans and Arab Gulf states can afford, even Europeans are now viewing air conditioning as a necessity to prevent thousands of unnecessary deaths every year.
Nevertheless, climate continues to be a politically charged issue. Some see it as the be-all and end-all of human existence; others regard it as a symbol of out-of-touch American and European elitism. As the Trump administration dismantles industrial policies that many Americans consider economically damaging, the op-ed pages of US and European newspapers are unsurprisingly full of doom and gloom these days.
It is high time to refuse to frame climate change as a culture war between left and right or between Global North and South
Arnab Neil Sengupta
It is true that the Trump administration is seeking to cancel tax credits for electric vehicles and relax emissions standards. It has reversed federal clean energy incentives, blocked new authorizations for renewables on public lands, and ended major resilience and adaptation grants. But the objective is not to flout the Paris Agreement and fill the atmosphere with heat-trapping carbon dioxide.
In keeping with his 'America First' ideology, Trump is trying to level the playing field for domestic coal, oil and natural gas producers, who were at a severe disadvantage because of federal government support for wind farms, solar panels, hydrogen production and other clean energy technologies under previous Democratic administrations. Moreover, accelerating the low-carbon transition is not without risks. As Wall Street Journal columnist Andy Kessler pointed out last week, 'Spain (56% renewables) has so much wind and solar power that fluctuations caused a massive blackout in April, taking parts of Portugal down with it. Central planning kills. The US uses 21% renewables.'
Not just that, at the grass roots, state and local governments, American businesses and communities are showing what is possible without the heavy hand of politically motivated federal agencies. They are focused on solutions such as energy efficiency, municipal resilience, fast-tracked permits for renewables, and job creation. State and corporate policies are picking up the slack, keeping the EV market and retrofits alive. Across the US, private developers and cities have been switching to solar panels, heat pumps, insulation and mass transit because of rebates and practical incentives.
The US may have stepped back to take stock and make sure that the mantra of decarbonization does not turn the country into an economic laggard, but the global energy transition, powered by economic incentives and private-sector leadership, seems to be moving on, anchored increasingly in pragmatism, economics and common sense.
While Trump has moved to suspend US climate finance, COP28's global consensus is pushing forward with financing for vulnerable countries and adaptation funds. At COP28 in Dubai in 2023, world leaders operationalized the Loss and Damage Fund and called for tripled climate finance. China is aggressively expanding its solar and EV industries. The EU is pushing forward with ambitious green finance, and both Africa and Southeast Asia welcome clean energy investment.
Likewise, business and innovation are receiving prominence. As seen at COP28, even major oil and gas producers can take the lead on the next phase of clean energy. Saudi Arabia and the UAE's strategy of investing in carbon capture, solar, green hydrogen and electric mobility is not a contradiction but realism. Elsewhere, oil companies are diversifying into hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel and grid resilience when policies point the way. With the right signals from states and the market, private investment is growing rapidly and following global demand.
Public engagement matters more than ever. Recent polling shows widespread concern, even among Republicans, about climate impacts as extreme heat, crop losses and wildfires intensify. What the last seven months have shown is that Americans are pragmatic: they want sound environmental and energy policies, not rhetoric. They are interested in practical outcomes, not ideology.
That said, without the right politics, progress will stall. The world needs the support of ordinary people who stand to gain or lose the most from climate-change mitigation. This will happen through local jobs, tax relief, cleaner air and healthier citizens. 'Green transition' will not sell in the developing world if it looks like an American or a Franco-German vanity project. It has to deliver flood-proofing in Africa, rural broadband powered by solar in South Asia, and training for wind-turbine assembly in North Africa.
The international community must focus on building trust through collaboration, biodiversity management and shared climate research while the US federal government steps back to restore some balance. Climate mitigation and adaptation is a project that needs Africa's ingenuity, Latin America's biodiversity, India's workforce and Gulf Arab entrepreneurship, plus moving away from a mindset fixated on reducing energy use.
Time is of the essence. Every year of unchecked warming raises the cost in the form of public health crises, agricultural losses and mass migration. The effects are already visible in small communities. Be it in New Orleans or Kenya, no one wakes up hoping for dinner by lantern light or rolling brownouts. People want reliability in the form of affordable energy supplies and cleaner air.
Summing up, global climate action is not about virtue signaling or panic mongering but common sense and patience. Slowly but steadily, the world must pivot to fuel efficiency, clean power, resilience, job training and global cooperation from the ground up. It is high time to refuse to frame climate change as a culture war between left and right or between global North and South.