The upcoming administration of US president-elect Donald Trump cannot reverse investment in clean energy technologies and innovation in the country, US climate advisor John Podesta said today at the UN's Cop 29 climate summit in Azerbaijan.
Talking about clean energy — including nuclear energy and the electrification of the automobile sector — Podesta said that trends would not be reversed under a Trump administration, even though the country will be facing new headwinds.
Trump's upcoming administration will attempt to reverse US climate policies, including eliminating tax incentives for clean electricity and the related supply chain through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), sparking uncertainty about clean energy investment in the country.
But Podesta said that Trump will face opposition even from Republican-led districts. Around 57pc of new clean energy jobs created since the IRA are in congressional districts represented by republicans, he said. "Support for clean energy has become bipartisan, many republicans especially governors know all this activity is a good thing for their districts, states and for their economies."
A group of 18 republicans this summer said they opposed a "full repeal" of the IRA because of the growth it is delivering to their districts.
"It's precisely because the IRA has staying in power,[that] I am confident the US will continue to reduce emissions, benefitting our own country and benefiting the world," he added. "The economics of energy transition have taken over."
The White House estimates that more than $265bn in clean energy investment has been announced since the passing of the IRA.
The current administration has still work to make sure investment in clean energy continues to flow once the new administration starts, he said. A permitting reform is receiving bipartisan support in the senate, Podesta said, while the government is working on awarding more funds available through the IRA. Around $98bn has been awarded already, which is 88pc of the funds available for the fiscal year.
The government is also working against the clock in completing the implementation of the IRA, which has some tax guidance pending regarding tax credits for clean hydrogen investment, among others.
Talking about Cop 29, where parties are due to agree on a new finance goal from developed countries to developing countries, Podesta said that the US is "here to work and we are committed to a successful outcome". "We will continue to encourage people to work diligently to come up with a new funding formula", although he noted that the goal needed to be "realistic".
Talking about increasing the contributor base for the finance goal — a difficult issue during technical negotiations — he said that economic circumstances have changed since 1992, and that several developing countries including China are already providing climate finance.
The long-running issue around contributors partly stems from the list of developed and developing countries used by UN climate body the UNFCCC. It dates back to 1992, when the body was established, and has been a bone of contention for some time for many developed countries, which argue that economic circumstances have changed in that time frame, and that several countries classed as developing — and typically heavy emitters — should now contribute to climate funds.
"We think it's time to take account of those contributions through contributions to multilateral development banks and other forms of cooperation... to make sure that developing countries have the financing they need".
He said that the US at Cop 29 was also working on outcomes related to energy deployment, including battery storage and power grids. "The outcome document of this Cop will hopefully point the world in the right direction on that," he said.
"Donald Trump may put climate action on the back burner, the work to contain climate change is going to continue in the US," he said.
