Climate fight is ‘bigger than one election’, says US climate envoy John Podesta, after Donald Trump’s election win

The fight against climate change is “bigger than one election”, US envoy John Podesta has said.

Mr Podesta was speaking at the UN COP29 climate talks after his party lost the White House to Republican and climate sceptic Donald Trump.

The re-election of Mr Trump, who is expected to again pull the United States out of global climate treaties and efforts, sent concern through the almost 200 countries gathering in Azerbaijan for the climate summit.

But a defiant Mr Podesta said: “This is not the end of our fight for a cleaner, safer planet.

“Facts are still facts. Science is still science. The fight is bigger than one election, one political cycle in one country.”

Mr Trump’s campaign team indicated the president-elect would withdraw the US – the world’s second biggest polluter – out of the landmark Paris Agreement, which he also did during his last term.

The climate envoy, a senior advisor to President Joe Biden, said he was aware the US had “disappointed” the world.

“I’m keenly aware of the disappointment that the United States has at times caused the parties of the climate regime who have moved through a pattern of strong, engaged, effective US leadership, followed by sudden disengagement after a US presidential election.

“And I know that this disappointment is more difficult to tolerate as the dangers we face grow ever more catastrophic. But that is the reality.”

Other climate envoys were also keen to stress that the show must go on, and that COP29 is continuing with business as usual, with countries this year hoping to agree a new climate fund for developing countries.