Trump's promotion of fossil fuels

January 23, 2026

This was the most confronting article by Julian Cribb I have read, and there have been a few. Clive Hamilton once wrote of his “Oh Shit” moment with regards to climate change. I had mine in Vietnam last year travelling around the vast Mekong delta, a massive rice-growing area, when I found it was only 84cm above current sea-level, but seas are expected to rise by that amount or more before the end of the century. There are huge implications for food security and displacement of people.

In this context, US President Trump’s systematic dismantling of the Inflation Reduction Act which was funding the necessary transition away from fossil fuels, and more recently the taking over of the Venezuelan oil fields are particularly egregious acts. In a spectacular display of short sightedness, Trump wants to keep the US economy running on oil, coal and gas. It is difficult to know whether he is ignorant of the climate consequences. He must have been aware of the LA wildfires of 12 months ago. Recently the World Weather Attribution report indicated that human-caused climate change increased the likelihood of the wildfires by about 35 per cent. Is there no-one to advise Trump of such things?