Trump's order signals end of US dominance in climate change battle

(reneweconomyThe Guardian, 28 Mar 2017) Trump’s climate blitzkrieg is unlikely to herald the end of civilization, but it risks US geopolitical dominance and could help ‘make China great again’.

Is Donald Trump’s determination to send US climate change policy back into the dark ages an “existential threat to the entire planet”, as the architect of many of Barack Obama’s green measures warns? Or is global momentum towards a cleaner, safer future “unstoppable”, as the UN’s climate chief said recently?

The answer lies somewhere in between and you can choose your point on that scale according to your optimism about whether society, governments and businesses will together rise to the challenge of beating global warming.

One thing is clear, however: the slash-and-burn of federal climate action in the US is making one of humanity’s greatest ever challenges more difficult, just at the time when it needs to start getting easier.

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reneweconomyThe Guardian, 28 Mar 2017: Trump's order signals end of US dominance in climate change battle