As the event opens with a focus on energy, former President Trump and other leaders are calling for more oil, gas and coal development.<\/p>\n
The United States is experiencing scorching new levels of heat fueled by climate change this summer, with dozens of people dying in the West, millions sweating under heat advisories and nearly three-quarters of Americans\u00a0saying the government must prioritize\u00a0global warming.<\/p>\n
But as the Republican Party opens its national convention in Milwaukee with a prime-time focus on energy on Monday night, the party has no plan to address climate change.<\/p>\n
While some Republicans no longer deny the overwhelming scientific consensus that the planet is warming because of human activity<\/a>, party leaders do not see it as a problem that needs to be addressed.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know that there is a Republican approach to climate change<\/a> as an organizing issue,\u201d said Thomas J. Pyle, president of the American Energy<\/a> Alliance, a conservative research group focused on energy. \u201cI don\u2019t think President Trump sees reducing greenhouse gases, using the government<\/a> to do so, as an imperative.\u201d<\/p>\n When former President Donald J. Trump mentions climate change<\/a> at all, it is mockingly.<\/p>\n \u201cCan you imagine, this guy says global warming<\/a> is the greatest threat to our country?\u201d Mr. Trump said, referring to President Biden as he addressed a rally in Chesapeake, Va., last month, the\u00a0hottest June in recorded history\u00a0across the globe. \u201cGlobal warming is fine. In fact, I heard it was going to be very warm today. It\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n He went on to dismiss the scientific evidence that melting ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland are causing seas to rise, threatening coastal communities<\/a> around the world.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ocean<\/a> will rise, maybe, and it may go down, also,\u201d Mr. Trump said. \u201cBut it may rise one eighth of an inch in the next 497 years, they say, one eighth, which gives you a little bit more waterfront property if you\u2019re lucky enough to own.\u201d In fact, sea levels are estimated to rise as much as 33 inches by the end of the century, according to top scientists. And if the Antarctic ice sheet collapses, experts said global sea levels could rise by more than 10 feet.<\/p>\n At the televised debate with Mr. Biden in June, Mr. Trump was asked if he would take any action as president to slow the climate crisis<\/a>. \u201cI want absolutely immaculate clean water<\/a> and I want absolutely clean air, and we had it,\u201d Mr. Trump responded, without answering the question.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump\u2019s spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, later declined to clarify the former president\u2019s position or discuss any actions he would take regarding climate change<\/a>, saying only that he wants \u201cenergy dominance.\u201d<\/p>\n The United States last year pumped more crude oil than any country in history and is now the world\u2019s biggest exporter of natural<\/a> gas.<\/p>\n A clear majority of Americans, 65 percent, wants the country to focus on increasing solar, wind and other renewable energy and not fossil fuels<\/a>, according to a May survey by the Pew Research Center. But just 38 percent of Republicans surveyed said renewable energy<\/a> should be prioritized, while 61 percent said the country should focus on developing more oil, gas and coal.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir No. 1 agenda is to continue producing fossil fuels,\u201d said Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences and the director of the Texas Center for Climate Studies at Texas A&M University<\/a>. \u201cOnce you understand their main goal is to entrench fossil fuels regardless of anything else, everything makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n The party platform, issued last week, makes no mention of climate change<\/a>. Instead, it encourages more production of oil, gas and coal, the burning of which is dangerously driving up global temperatures. \u201cWe will DRILL, BABY, DRILL,\u201d it says, referring to oil as \u201cliquid gold.\u201d<\/p>\n By contrast, Mr. Biden has taken the most aggressive action of any president to cut emissions from coal, oil and gas and encourage a transition to wind, solar and other carbon-free<\/a> energy. He has directed every federal agency from the Agriculture Department to the Pentagon to consider how climate change is affecting<\/a> their core missions.<\/p>\n If Mr. Biden has taken an all-of-government approach to fighting climate change<\/a>, Mr. Trump and his allies would adopt the opposite: scrubbing \u201cclimate\u201d from all federal functions and promoting fossil fuels.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump and his allies want to end federal subsidies for electric vehicles, battery development and the wind and solar industries<\/a>, preferring instead to open up the Alaskan wilderness to oil drilling, encourage more offshore drilling and expand gas export terminals.<\/p>\n Project 2025,\u00a0a lengthy manual filled with specific proposals for a next Republican administration, calls for erasing any mention of climate change<\/a> across the government. While Mr. Trump has recently sought to distance himself from Project 2025, he has praised its architects at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative<\/a> research organization, and much of the plan was written by people who were top advisers during his first term and could serve in prominent roles if he wins in November.<\/p>\n When pressed to discuss climate change<\/a>, some Republicans say the country should produce more natural gas and sell it to other countries as a cleaner replacement for coal.<\/p>\n While natural gas produces less carbon dioxide than coal when burned, it remains one of the sources of the greenhouse gases that are driving climate change<\/a>. Scientists say<\/a> that countries must stop burning coal, oil and gas to keep global warming to relatively safe levels. Last year, at the United Nations climate<\/a> summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the United States and nearly 200 countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n But if elected, Mr. Trump has indicated he would pull back from the global fight against climate change<\/a>, as he did when he announced in 2017 that the United States would be the first and only country to withdraw from the Paris Agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions. (The United States subsequently rejoined under Mr. Biden.)<\/p>\n And it\u2019s possible he would go even further. Mr. Trump\u2019s former aides said that if he wins in November, he would remove the country altogether from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the international body that works on climate<\/a> policy and created the 2015 Paris deal.<\/p>\n When it comes to international relations, Project 2025 calls<\/a> for an end to spending federal funds to help the world\u2019s poorest countries transition to wind, solar and other renewable energy.<\/p>\n The blueprint also calls for erasing climate change as a national security<\/a> concern, despite research showing rising sea levels, extreme weather and other consequences of global temperature rise are\u00a0destabilizing areas of the world, affecting migration and threatening American military installations.<\/p>\n Federal research into climate change would slow or disappear under Project<\/a> 2025, which recommends dismantling the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which conducts some of the world\u2019s leading climate research and is also responsible for weather forecasting and tracking the path of hurricanes and other storms.<\/p>\n NOAA, according to the authors of Project 2025, is \u201cone of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry<\/a> and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.\u201d At the agency\u2019s research operation, which include a network of research laboratories, an undersea research center, and several joint research<\/a> institutes with universities, \u201cthe preponderance of its climate-change research should be disbanded,\u201d the blueprint said.<\/p>\n Project 2025 also calls for the president to issue an executive order to \u201creshape\u201d the program that convenes 13 federal agencies every four years to produce the National Climate<\/a> Assessment, the country\u2019s most authoritative analysis of climate knowledge. The report is required by Congress and details the impacts and risks of climate change<\/a> to a wide range of sectors, including agriculture, health care and transportation. It is used by the public<\/a>, researchers and officials around the country to inform decisions about strategies and spending.<\/p>\n Project 2025 also calls for the elimination of offices at the Department of Energy dedicated to developing<\/a> wind, solar and other renewable energy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n