Former US President Donald Trump during a campaign event in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Oct. 22, 2024.
Photographer: Cornell Watson/BloombergIf Trump Wins, Climate Diplomats Are Ready to Bypass US Role
Secret talks are preparing to keep global cooperation alive under an adversarial US president. A second American withdrawal from the Paris accord could turn leadership over to China.
Donald Trump has been clear that he plans to lead another US retreat from global climate diplomacy if he wins a second term in the White House, vowing to once again abandon the landmark Paris Agreement that he calls “horrendously unfair.”
Environmentalists, government officials and former diplomats are already bracing for the possibility and plotting ways to Trump-proof global cooperation on climate change. A series of conversations, crisis simulations and political wargaming have spanned the globe, described by people familiar with the sessions as galvanized by a desire to maximize climate progress — even with an adversarial US president.