“Climate Change is a hoax!” says Trump. Trump is known for his stand against the Paris Climate Accord.  When the US stepped out of the Accord during Trump’s first term, it was almost conceded as the collapse of the global framework. World leaders pinned hope only on the 46^th President Joe Biden who readily agreed and signed the accord. For Trump, America first and climate action waste!   “Make America bigger” seems to be his only goal, could we expect him to do good for other nations or planet Earth? The world not only realized that climate change is the biggest threat facing the Earth, but of late started thinking of climate emergency.

While the UN is confident that nothing is too late, the immediate focus is reducing fossil fuel. However, it is also a fact that unless underdeveloped nations are funded to meet the deadlines for phasing out fossil fuel, the objective of addressing the climate emergency will remain a tall wish and nothing more than that. The ongoing COP 29 at Baku (Nov 11^th to 22^nd, 2024), Azerbaijan is crucial to deciding the course of the climate action. But world leaders need to revisit their financial goals. The ensuing Trump administration has lowered the hopes that the US will continue to support the meeting of the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) to the extent of the revised target of $500bn annually. Already many countries have expressed their fear that they may find it difficult to meet the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). If the US drops out of the Paris Agreement again, the climate action will remain only on paper, because obviously, the estimated NDC of the US is the highest. If the current policies and investments are any indication, we are heralding an era of a likely increase of 3°C.  Already experts have forecast this contingency. There are about 200 member countries many of whom have already signed the Paris Agreement and are aware of the climate emergency that the world is facing today. They are willing to bring positive climate action. Barring the US, all are ready to meet the challenge. It is wise for member nations to arrive at a pragmatic solution, without the US on board and be prepared to plunge into action. There is no point in waiting for Trump to show mercy. The time has come for the global nations to show that climate actions are possible without the US (Pic courtesy: http://www.greenhumours.com)