What Trump’s Nominees Portend for the Environment

The group, including past UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon and former UN Climate Chief, Christiana Figueres, wrote an open letter, saying the structure cannot deliver the change at the exponential speed and scale essential to a safe landing for humanity. Many experts who signed said the talks are “no longer fit for purpose” in dealing with the climate crisis.

They added that a country shouldn’t be selected to hold the conference if its leaders don’t support the phase-out of fossil fuels. It is the second year in a row in which a country that depends on oil and gas has hosted. Last year, the meetings were in the United Arab Emirates. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore told Euronews it’s absurd that the leadership of the talks is repeatedly handed to petrostates.

The letter suggested implementing methods to hold countries accountable for climate targets and to amplify the voice of science. It also decried the record number of fossil fuel lobbyists that have been granted access to meetings, noting they outnumber scientists, Indigenous communities, and vulnerable nations. After it was published, Ms. Figueres said that some of their ideas had been misinterpreted and that the COP process was essential and irreplaceable to support needed change.

In his opening remarks at COP29 last week, the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, said that natural gas was a “gift from God,” and that he, meaning the president, should not be blamed for bringing it to market. Some officials from his country were reportedly caught trying to make fossil fuel deals at or before the conference. Azerbaijan plans to increase gas production up to one-third over the next ten years.

Argentina pulled out of the conference on Wednesday after its president, Javier Milei, spoke to U.S. president-elect Trump the day before, according to the Financial Times.  Trump has said he would pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on limiting warming. France pulled out its top negotiators after the president of Azerbaijan accused French president Macron of killing people in New Caledonia at recent protests.

This year’s conference is focused on how to aid developing countries that are most vulnerable to the effects of global warming, but as the New York Times reports, pledges to contribute to a fund now stand at over $700 million, which many analysts say is woefully inadequate.

In accepting the nomination, Zeldin thanked Trump, saying, “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.” The League of Conservation Voters—an organization that tracks positions on environmental legislation—gave Zeldin a 14 percent score for his congressional voting record.

That said, Laura Deehan, state director of Environment California told the Los Angeles Times that Zeldin did vote to oppose dumping toxic waste into the Long Island Sound, took action against PFAS chemicals, and supported permanent conservation funding in the bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act, which seeks to improve infrastructure and expand recreation opportunities in national parks and other public lands. As E&E News reports, when first elected to the House in 2014, Zeldin was a member of both the Conservative Climate Caucus and the Climate Solutions Caucus. He also voted against Republican amendments that would have cut funding for the EPA when the House was under Democratic control.

However, Zeldin voted against Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which has generated billions of dollars in clean energy production and manufacturing—especially in Republican districts. Zeldin also backed Trump’s 2017 exit from the Paris Climate Agreement.

The Interior Department manages millions of acres of federal lands, most in the West, including national parks and monuments, wildlife refuges, and wilderness and recreation areas. It also oversees the government’s relationship with Native American tribes and onshore and offshore drilling.

The Hill reports that when he was governor, Burgum set a goal for the state to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. However, he planned to meet that objective not by transitioning away from fossil fuels, but by using carbon capture technology.

There has been significant reaction from the environmental community to Burgum’s nomination, including from the Sierra Club, which said in a statement that he helped arrange a meeting of wealthy oil and gas executives at Mar-a-Lago where Trump offered to overturn dozens of rules and regulations in return for $1 billion in campaign contributions. At that meeting, Burgum reportedly said that on day one of his presidency, Trump could stop the hostile attack against American energy whether it’s oil, gas, or baseload electricity.

The Sierra Club warns that Burgum’s ties to the oil and gas industry run deep, and he will continue Trump’s efforts to sell off public lands to energy development. According to E&E News, Burgum is viewed as an ally to coal and mineral mining interests. Rich Nolan of the National Mining Association told the news outlet that he recognizes mineral production is critical to growing the nation’s economy.

The Center for Biological Diversity said that Burgum will be a disastrous Secretary of the Interior who’ll sacrifice the country’s public lands and endangered wildlife on the altar of the fossil fuel industry’s profits. Jennifer Rokala, of the Center for Western Priorities said in a statement that Burgum will find himself on the wrong side of history if he tries to turn America’s parks and national monuments into an even bigger cash cow for the oil and gas industry.

If confirmed, Burgum would also head a new National Energy Council, which Trump described as including all departments and agencies involved in all forms of American energy and charged with enhancing private sector investment and cutting red tape.

A natural method of carbon sequestration is to use plants and algae to remove CO2 through photosynthesis, and in that vein, scientists led by Harvard have discovered a novel strain of cyanobacteria, or algae, that punches above its weight when it comes to carbon removal and storage—an algae they have named, “Chonkus.”

They discovered Chonkus off the island of Vulcano, in Italy. Shallow seawater there gets plenty of sun and has high levels of dissolved CO2 from nearby volcanic vents. They found that after Chonkus gorges on the CO2, it sinks to the ocean floor, fat and happy, socking away the carbon for good.

The team brought the algae to their lab and were able to generate two strains—one of which could be used for carbon capture. They also note that the more CO2 Chonkus takes in, the faster it grows. While Chonkus grows only in small numbers in the ocean, they could be cultivated at scale in industrial settings and be very useful to humans by feeding off our mistakes.

The study was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.