Closing off borders, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, and withdrawing from the Paris Accord; the surreal and severe realities of a Donald Trump second-term landed within just a few short hours of his return to the White House this week, when the 47th US president got to work on a ‘shock and awe’ campaign to roll-out his first executive orders.

To the backdropped slogan of his 2024 Presidential election campaign – Drill Baby, Drill – Donald Trump delivered an inaugural speech somehow even more dramatic, controversial, and confrontational than his first time around, some eight years ago. 

US President, Donald Trump made light work of rescinding no fewer than 78 Biden-era executive actions while establishing early, the kind of tone we can expect for the coming four years, by declaring an energy emergency, withdrawing from the 2015 Paris Agreement, and taking the United States out of the World Health Organisation.

It’s been a noisy start for the returning President, so here’s what we know so far and the impact it’s likely to have on the world’s climate agenda.

Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement

On Monday, Donald Trump moved to withdraw the United States – the world’s second biggest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions – from the Paris climate Agreement… for the second time.

On stage, in front of supporters at an arena in Washington DC, Trump signed an executive order aimed at quitting the agreement while putting the United Nations ‘on notice.’ Donald Trump has been vocal in his opposition of the united accord, previously calling it an “unfair, one-sided rip-off”. 

He also signed a letter to the United Nations, giving it notice that the US was exiting, thus starting the formal process of withdrawal from the world’s main effort to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis. It will now take around a year for the withdrawal to be formalised.

When enacted, the US will join Iran, Libya, and Yemen as the only countries outside of the global agreement, one that Joe Biden had rejoined in 2021 after Trump confirmed he would exit it in his first term in 2017.

In a similar vein, Trump has also pledged to reverse Biden’s efforts to grow the US’ clean energy sector, which he has called “the green new scam” promising instead, at his inauguration address, to “drill baby drill” and remove all limits on America’ booming fossil fuel industry.

A national energy emergency declared

Amid this barrage of pro-fossil fuel actions, Trump declared a national energy emergency and detailed efforts to “unleash” an already booming US energy production infrastructure that also includes rolling back restrictions on drilling in Alaska and undoing a pause on gas exports.

Trump said at the White House that the order will mean “you can do whatever you have to do to get out of that problem and we do have that kind of emergency.” It’s a declaration that will now allow his administration to fast-track permits for new fossil fuel infrastructure.

It’s likely however, according to the Guardian, that the order – part of a broader effort to roll-back climate policy – will face legal challenges.

“We have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have, the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it – let me use it,” said Trump in his inaugural speech. ‘We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.”

In another executive action, Trump suspended offshore wind leasing from all areas of the outer continental shelf pending an environmental and economic review. Trump has frequently criticised offshore wind during his campaign appearances and had promised to target projects if elected.

Climate experts have long warned that the additional extraction of coal, oil, or gas could imperil the ability to meet the United Nations’ climate goals, and will put the world ‘closer to climate catastrophe.’ Worth noting is that the Biden administration actually oversaw record levels of US fossil fuel production, despite its prioritisation of climate policy.

Electric vehicle target, revoked

Part of a larger effort to repeal Biden’s environmental protections, Trump has also promised to not only revoke a non-binding executive order signed to make half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 electric, but roll back on auto pollution standards finalised last spring. 

“The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” he said on Monday afternoon. 

Trump’s order is part of a promised push to repeal environmental protections introduced by Biden and to support US makers of gas-powered cars. He has also promised to roll back auto pollution standards – a rule Trump called an “EV mandate”, though it did not directly require the production of electric vehicles.

Amid the clamour of the past 36 hours, response from those in the climate camp has remained resolute. Wopke Hoekstra, the European Commission’s commissioner for climate, net zero, and clean growth has described the US exit from the Paris agreement as “a truly unfortunate development”. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen has said she still supports the Paris Climate agreement, and “Europe will stay the course.”

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