The Trump administration has moved to dismantle U.S. climate policy, slashing subsidies for clean energy, weakening limits on pollution, and attacking the legal basis for climate regulation. But the U.S. retreat on climate policy belies advances in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, experts say.
Analyzing climate laws and regulations in 39 countries that account for the bulk of global emissions, researchers at Oxford University find little evidence of a widespread policy retrenchment. Of more than 800 measures adopted in these countries, 718 remain unchanged. Another 45 have been delayed, 32 weakened, and just 11 repealed. Of those repeals, eight come from the U.S.
At the U.N. climate conference now underway in Turkey, “geopolitical divisions risk dominating the headlines,” said Thom Wetzer, codirector of the Oxford Climate Policy Hub, which undertook the research. “But climate progress also depends on decisions made far from the negotiating table: the laws that shape investment, energy systems, and corporate behavior.”
Countries are not only continuing to adopt climate policies, but their policies are becoming more ambitious (targeting faster and deeper cuts) and comprehensive (covering more of the economy), researchers say.
In the U.S., Democratic wins in the recent midterm elections have also opened a path for climate progress at the state level, according to Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.
Writing in Yale Environment 360, he said, “Public outcry over the growth of data centers, which are driving ever more burning of natural gas, and the rising cost of electricity mean that Democrats have a mandate to advance energy reforms in the states they control.”
ALSO ON YALE E360
Power Shift: State Election Wins Open Path for Climate Progress
