Daily Times

Democrats and Republicans are going head to head on climate change science debates and policy making. Democrats believe that climate is a manmade global problem, whereas Republicans tend to take an opposing view. The President of United States, Donald Trump is known for giving controversial and sometimes conspiratorial statements on climate change and global warming. Trump stated “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” In the recent cold wave of winter in January, Trump Tweeted, “What the hell is going on with Global Warming? Please come back fast, we need you!” Other than statements against the climate change he has also come out in favor of coal energy and against renewable energy. “End the war on beautiful, clean coal” President Trump stated in his State of the Union speech. Recently, on April 2, 2019 Trump told to his fellow Republicans, “If you have a wind turbine anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value, their noise causes cancer.” As usual, this statement of his related to clean energy backfired somewhat. Apart from other politicians, his fellow Republicans also criticized his statements about wind mills causing cancer. Iowa’s two Republican senators were quick to comment. “Idiotic,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley. “It’s ridiculous,” said Sen. Joni Ernst. Earlier, Trump had announced the withdrawal from several climate change mitigation related programs like the 2015 Paris Agreement. Contrary to the statements of President Trump, his appointed Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Mr. Neil Chatterjee, speaking at the Columbia Global Energy Summit on Wednesday stated, “I believe climate change is real. I believe man has an impact. And I believe that we need to take steps to mitigate emissions urgently.”

Climate change has for many years remained key to the agendas of Democrats contesting presidential elections, however, the issue has not provided a winning impact. Democrat Albert Arnold Gore Jr (Al Gore), the former vice president under Clinton, has remained one of the most highly vocal politicians and environmentalists against climate change. He was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize 2007 along with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.” Even after his considerable effort, he could not center his campaign around the issue during his run in 2000. For the U.S. elections in 2020, Democrats seems to be centralizing their campaign on climate change. One of their recently active documents is the Green New Deal, which refers to the social and economic reforms for mitigation of climate change and economic inequality.

Democrats and Republicans are head to head on climate change science debates and policy making. Democrats believe that climate is a man made global problem, whereas Republicans are on the opposite side of the word. The President of United States, Donald Trump has been very famous for statements on climate change and global warming

Jay Inslee, who is the governor of Washington and a Democratic candidate for president, has written an opinion article for CNN titled “Climate change must be our No. 1 priority.” The article mentions events within the U.S due to extreme weather conditions and refers to climate change as an undeniable fact. Further, being the candidate for president, the author makes climate change the top priority and places emphasis on the use of clean and renewable energy. The article also highlights the ambitions of the candidate to create jons through renewable energy, justice and inclusion for economic transformation and ending the subsidies to the fossil fuel industries.

Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) published its 2018 Sustainability Report and its annual Payments to Governments Report, which also included Industry Associations Climate Review on April 2, 2019. Shell ended its membership of American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), quoting misalignment in their views on climate change with them. In a company press release, Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said, “We must be prepared to openly voice our concerns where we find misalignment with an industry association on climate-related policy.” This is one of the major developments in the industrial world, where an oil giant has quit a very strong US oil lobby group over climate change policies. Furthermore, Shell has been backing the carbon tax considering the climate change concessions. The company has also threatened that it may withdraw from nine other trade groups, including the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

More than 4500 Amazon employees on Wednesday urged the company to take aggressive action against climate change and reduce its carbon footprint. Workers warned that Amazon should stop offering custom cloud-computing services to companies who support the oil and gas sector and will also provide the plan for zero carbon emissions as reported by various reputed news agencies.

These days several activists and civil society members have a been protesting against climate change. Earlier on March 15 thousands of students and activists protested climate change in more than 112 countries around the world. It is reported that it was one of the biggest protests in history against climate change. Within the US, in more than 100 cities school kids were on the streets. It is worth mentioning that the US school strike against climate change was led by three female students Alexandria Villasenor, Haven Coleman, and Isra Hirsi. Outside the US, Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Switzerland on April 6 demanding action for net zero emissions.

David Leonhardt reported in The New York Times that most American voters are in favor policies for clean energy to cope up with climate change even if those policies raise the cost of energy. Americans have seen the worst of the effects of extreme weather in the recent past. This may mean they are ready to bring in a government which should help them in mitigate climate change disasters. With this, Democrats seems to be on the right track for the U.S elections 2020.

Author is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director for Quality Enhancement Cell at Dawood University of Engineering and Technology Karachi