The resilience of the Biden administration's climate policy: on the danger of a climate policy u-turn under a second Trump presidency

Abstract

The United States will play a crucial role in global climate protection in what has been called the "super election year" of 2024. After three-and-a-half years of having scored huge successes in climate protection, President Joe Biden could be succeeded by Donald Trump in January 2025, according to opinion polls. Trump used his first Presi­dency (2017-2021) to largely reverse the climate protection measures of the previous administration; and he intends to take the same approach if he wins in November. Conservative think tanks have provided him with a detailed blueprint for doing so with the "Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise". Trump's return to the White House would deal a fatal blow to climate protection. Many of the Biden ad­ministration's climate policy measures could be scrapped by a second Trump adminis­tration. While the future of US climate policy depends largely on the results of the elections to the White House and Congress, an important factor will also be the pro­gress that has been made in the individual US states. (author's abstract)