In a rambling address Tuesday, President Donald Trump told the United Nations General Assembly that the international organization has failed on a range of crucial issues, which he said contrasts with his administration’s successes, including his support for fossil fuels and opposition to renewable energy.

“I’ve been right about everything, and I’m telling you if you don’t get away from the green energy scam, your country is going to fail,” he said.

His words almost seemed to be part of a different reality than the one described by other speakers who talked about the urgency of addressing climate change and adopting renewable energy. But this contrast was not surprising. It has become a familiar part of the Trump administration’s interactions with many of its allies and international organizations.

Trump’s speech did not include any climate policy announcements. Some environmental advocates were concerned that he would withdraw the United States from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a 1992 treaty that guides international efforts to combat climate change.

Today’s Climate

Tuesdays

A once-a-week digest of the most pressing climate-related news, written by Kiley Price and released every Tuesday.

Breaking News

Don’t miss a beat. Get a daily email of our original, groundbreaking stories written by our national network of award-winning reporters.

ICN Sunday Morning

Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and ICN reporters as they discuss one of the week’s top stories.

Justice & Health

A digest of stories on the inequalities that worsen the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities.

He made many comments that are at odds with accepted research and scientific consensus. For example, he said the United Nations has consistently been wrong in its forecasts of climate change.

“All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong,” he said.

That’s not true, according to research, including a study published last month by an international team led by scientists from Tulane University, showing that the International Panel on Climate Change’s mid-range projection of sea level rise in its 1995 assessment was “strikingly close to what transpired over the next 30 years.” The projection had been off by less than 1 centimeter, and it had underestimated rather than overestimated rising coastal peril. (The IPCC is part of the U.N.’s environment program.)

Another example is a 2019 study by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, MIT and NASA, which showed that projections published between 1970 and 2007, based on IPCC models, had been on target in predicting future global mean surface warming.

And 2024 was the hottest year on record, and the last 10 years are the 10 hottest on record.

“Denial of Reality”

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres began the day’s session with a speech that warned of the dangers of climate change and the need for a rapid shift to renewable energy.

“Fossil fuels are a losing bet,” he said. “Last year, almost all new power capacity came from renewables—and investment is surging. Renewables are the cheapest and fastest source of new power. They create jobs, drive growth, shield economies from volatile oil and gas markets, connect the unconnected, and can free us from the tyranny of fossil fuels.”

But Guterres warned that growth in renewable energy needs to accelerate for the world to have a chance of avoiding the worst effects of climate change.

“Science says limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees by the end of this century is still possible, but the window is closing,” he said.

Annalena Baerbock of Germany, who is the president of this year’s General Assembly, which means she acts as presiding officer, said countries must be open to collaboration to address major challenges.

“In this globalized, digitalized world, we work together—or we suffer alone,” she said.

Trump’s speech stood out from the rest in its length—he spoke for about an hour, which was longer than any other presenter—and its aggressive, self-promoting tone.

Trump’s supporters welcomed his message.

“How can you not love this man,” wrote Steven Crowder, a conservative political commentator, in a social media post.

But people who have worked on U.S. and global climate policy were baffled and horrified by Trump’s speech.

“Trump continues to embarrass the U.S. on the global stage and undermine the interests of Americans at home,” said Gina McCarthy, a climate advisor in the Biden administration and director of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Obama administration, in a statement. “By throwing away our leadership and global collaboration on climate change, he’s forfeiting our ability to influence how trillions of dollars in financial investments, policies, and decisions are made that will shape the course of our economy.”

Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation, said in a statement that Trump’s speech was “a denial of reality.”

“Almost every government in the world recognises that climate change is not a hoax but a defining challenge – and that renewable energy is not an indulgence but the backbone of future prosperity,” she said.

Dan Gearino

Reporter, Clean Energy

Dan Gearino covers the business and policy of renewable energy and utilities, often with an emphasis on the midwestern United States. He is the main author of ICN’s Inside Clean Energy newsletter. He came to ICN in 2018 after a nine-year tenure at The Columbus Dispatch, where he covered the business of energy. Before that, he covered politics and business in Iowa and in New Hampshire. He grew up in Warren County, Iowa, just south of Des Moines, and lives in Columbus, Ohio.

• 
  @dangearino.bsky.social
  
• 
  [email protected]