Newscasts - How Trump's second term has reshaped U.S. climate policy

North American Construction

14/11/2025 23:08

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Source: 'Reuters - General news videos'

Description: President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025 has triggered a sweeping rollback of U.S. climate policy, reversing many of the initiatives introduced under former President Joe Biden and reshaping the country’s energy priorities. Kristy Kilburn explains. 

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Video Transcript:

At this year's COP30 summit in Brazil, world leaders gathered to brainstorm strategies for tackling climate change. But one influential seat in the room was left empty: the United States, the world's biggest economy and largest historical COâ‚‚ emitter. So why didn't President Donald Trump send anyone and why is it significant?

We will drill, baby, drill.

Trump's return to the White House in January 2025 triggered a sweeping rollback of US climate policy. He submitted the country's withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement for a second time.

Climate change.

And he doubled down on his skepticism at the UN General Assembly in September by calling climate change, "the greatest con job ever."

The Inflation Reduction Act.

The Administration has dismantled key provisions of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, halting billions in clean energy tax credits and loans. The Big Beautiful Bill Act curtailed deadlines for wind and solar projects, raising costs and threatening cancellations, and nearly $8 billion in climate-related funding targeting 16 states, including California and New York, are being canceled.

I call it liquid gold under our feet.

Trump revived his energy dominance agenda by opening federal lands for oil, gas, and coal extraction and prioritizing fossil fuel incentives over renewables. The Department of Energy has also redirected loan programs toward coal-related investments and nuclear restarts. The Environmental Protection Agency is moving to rescind its 2009 endangerment finding that underpins greenhouse gas rules, scraps emission standards for power plants, and weakens environmental justice tools. The Trump Administration has billed its plan to undo US climate regulation as a way to cut costs for industry. But lawmakers and trade groups say it may backfire by forcing automakers, utilities, and manufacturers into a future of regulatory uncertainty and litigation risk. Federal agencies have removed or restricted access to climate assessments, environmental justice screening tools, and disaster databases. NOAA stopped updating billion-dollar disaster data and the US Global Change Research Program site went offline. Since Trump's return, scientists, and citizens worldwide have been downloading US databases slated for decommissioning. Analysts warn these changes could derail US emissions targets and slow the clean energy transition while increasing costs for utilities and consumers. Critics say the rollback undermines climate science and public engagement at a time of worsening extreme weather, and scientists overwhelmingly say climate change is real, mostly caused by humans, and getting worse.