MOSCOW, November 6. /TASS/. After he takes office as the US President Donald Trump will most likely review his country's commitments under the Paris climate agreement, and it is also possible that benefits for green energy and electric vehicles will be canceled, Russian President’s special envoy for relations with international organizations, Boris Titov, told TASS.
During Trump's last presidential term, the US withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. Under President Joe Biden, Washington resumed its membership in the agreement.
"As for the US withdrawal from the Paris agreement, there will most likely be a major revision - both of obligations and approaches. It is difficult to talk about withdrawal yet. But the general conclusion is that the climate agenda should not turn into the chaos of trade wars, and it is heading this way now even without Trump," Titov said.
"Russia will in any case defend its position in a balanced manner, observing international obligations. And our position is the priority of climate solutions, comparing green investments with the effects, interests of the economy, and the inadmissibility of using the climate as a weapon of economic blackmail and coercion," Titov added.
According to him, the main internal risk for the United States is the cancellation of benefits for green energy and electric vehicles introduced by the Inflation Reduction Act under Biden. Nevertheless, 87% of Republicans support climate projects to capture greenhouse gases, and 67% support technology projects specifically to capture carbon.
However, the rhetoric of Trump and the Republican Party as such contains mistrust of the climate agenda in its current implementation. Earlier this year, only 12% of Republicans believed that combating climate change should be a top priority for the president and Congress, 23% believed that climate change was a serious threat to the country's well-being, 37% of Republicans supported requiring power plants to be carbon neutral by 2040, and even fewer (23%) supported requiring most new buildings to run on electricity alone, without natural gas, Titov noted.
"That means, when Trump takes office [as US President], apparently, taking into account [his party’s] advantage in the houses of parliament, we can expect a more pragmatic approach to the climate agenda as a whole. A more accurate planning of investments and consequences, climate effects. And this may be good, given that in the current perspective, an increasing number of parties are beginning to treat it (the climate agenda - TASS) as an imposed "new colonial policy". It is worth mentioning right away that of course, it is not the US that plays the first fiddle in the climate agenda, but the European Union and China, and US policy is indirectly influencing their position for now," the Russia President’s envoy said.
About the elections
Voting in the US elections concluded on the morning of November 6, Moscow time.
The official results have not yet been finalized, but according to Fox News forecasts, Trump has already secured 277 electoral votes, with 270 required to win. He has already declared himself the 47th President of the United States. Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson called him the elected head of state, and foreign leaders have begun to congratulate Trump on his victory.