An image of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump hangs in the window of a campaign office in Hamtramck, Michigan, November 4, 2024
TIM YOUNG warns that the president-elect’s record of economic and political interference from his last stint in the White House show dangerous potential for escalated aggression against the Bolivarian government from 2025
THE US election result raises the spectre of Trump renewing the assault on Venezuela that his loss to Biden interrupted in 2020.
In office between 2016 and 2020, Trump’s approach to Latin America showed an implacable hostility towards Venezuela, as well as other governments in the region determined to advance their population’s interests, not those of the US.
Venezuela has been subjected to US extraterritorial intervention and interference for over two decades. From the early days of Hugo Chavez’s election as president in 1998, the US has sought, in conjunction with Venezuela’s economic and political elites, to topple the Venezuelan government and re-establish its control and influence over the country and its oil wealth.
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While the global situation has changed since 2020, with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and the US’s developing aggressive strategy towards Russia and China, there is no reason to believe the US’s long-standing desire to destabilise the Venezuelan government and achieve “regime change” is off the table.
For his part, Trump made it plain when campaigning this year in North Carolina what motivated his drive to unseat Maduro: “When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over; we would have gotten all that oil.”
The solidarity movement in Britain must be prepared to defend Venezuela’s sovereignty against any renewed offensive by Trump when he assumes the presidency in 2025 — as well as continuing to campaign for Britain to give Venezuela back its gold.
John Podesta, U.S. senior adviser to the president for international climate policy, speaks to the media during a United Nations climate summit on November 11, 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
“President Joe Biden must reject all pending LNG export permits and stop the expansion of fossil fuels.”
As the U.S. senior adviser to the president for international climate policy addressed the United Nations summit in Azerbaijan on Monday, green groups urged the outgoing Democratic administration to do whatever it can to tackle the global crisis before Republicans seize control of the White House and likely both chambers of Congress.
“I want to address tonight a topic that is on everyone’s mind—the U.S. election,” John Podesta, President Joe Biden’s adviser, told the crowd in Baku on the first day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), less than a week after President-elect Donald Trumpdefeated Vice President Kamala Harris.
Although votes are still being counted, Republicans have secured a majority in the U.S. Senate and are on track to retain control of the House of Representatives—paving the way for Trump’s plans to roll back the Biden-Harris administration’s progress on the climate emergency and “drill, baby, drill,” which would lead to a surge in planet-heating pollution.
“Podesta’s speech must be followed by swift action to limit U.S. fossil fuel expansion and achieve a strong COP29 outcome.”
“For those of us dedicated to climate action, last week’s outcome in the United States is obviously bitterly disappointing,” Podesta acknowledged, “particularly because of the unprecedented resources and ambition President Biden and Vice President Harris brought to the climate fight.”
Noting that Biden pledged to halve emissions this decade, rejoined the Paris agreement, signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and promised $11 billion in international climate funds, Podesta warned that “the next administration will try to take a U-turn and reverse much of this progress.”
“As President Biden said in the Rose Garden last week, setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable. This is not the end of our fight for a cleaner, safer planet. Facts are still facts. Science is still science,” he continued. “This fight is bigger than one election, one political cycle, in one country. This fight is bigger still.”
“We can and will make real progress on the backs of our climate-committed states and cities, our innovators, our companies, and our citizens, especially young people, who understand more than most that climate change poses an existential threat that we cannot afford to ignore,” he added. “Failure or apathy is simply not an option.”
Responding to the envoy’s remarks in a Monday statement, Collin Rees, United States program manager at Oil Change International, said that “if John Podesta and President Joe Biden are committed to doing everything possible to continue climate progress despite Donald Trump’s reelection, this moment demands a bold agenda that goes beyond locking in clean energy gains and takes real action toward a just transition off fossil fuels.”
“There is no shortage of critical work to be done before Biden leaves office,” Rees argued. “Here at COP29, the United States must support a new, transformative global finance goal in which rich countries pay their fair share in high-quality, grant-based finance and work to submit a Paris-aligned nationally determined contribution committing to do its fair share of climate action and phase out fossil fuels.”
In the United States, Rees argued, Biden must “finalize studies on the dangerous impacts” of new liquefied natural gas exports, “reject deadly projects like the Dakota Access oil pipeline and pending LNG facilities in the Gulf South,” and urge Congress to block the latest attempt by outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) “to destroy bedrock environmental protections.”
Looking toward next week’s Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) meeting, Rees said that “Biden’s administration must support a global agreement to end export credit finance for oil and gas projects, a process which could end tens of billions of dollars in international finance for fossil fuels every year. This agreement would limit the global climate damages Trump and his fossil fuel cronies are able to perpetrate.”
“Podesta’s speech must be followed by swift action to limit U.S. fossil fuel expansion and achieve a strong COP29 outcome,” he stressed. Leaders at other climate organizations—who have often argued that Biden hasn’t gone far enough to tackle the fossil fuel-driven crisis—issued similar demands on Monday.
Emphasizing that “climate diplomacy on a boiling planet doesn’t stop for a climate denier,” Ben Goloff, senior campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, called on Biden officials to “use the next two months to set up a bulwark of protections and secure their climate legacy.”
“Beyond urgently getting IRA money out the door, John Podesta must commit the U.S.’s fair share of global climate finance and announce an ambitious NDC climate target,” Goloff said, referring to nationally determined contributions for the Paris agreement.
Biden, he added, “has to make good on last year’s agreement to transition away from fossil fuels by rejecting pending mega-polluting project,” and “should also act quickly to fill all federal judicial vacancies as a wall of defense to Trump’s rampage of legal attacks.”
Jamie Minden, acting executive director of the youth-led movement Zero Hour, also declared that “before Trump takes office, President Joe Biden must reject all pending LNG export permits and stop the expansion of fossil fuels.”
“Our climate is on the brink of collapse, and it is sheer madness that politicians continue to expand and subsidize deadly fossil fuels,” Minden said. “Young people are fighting for our planet because we are facing the worst consequences of the unrelenting greed of these selfish politicians.”
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark RichardsOrcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels. Second version, corrected text.
If you care about saving Earth from catastrophe, you might be feeling a little down about the re-election of Donald Trump as United States president. Undeniably, his return to the White House is a real setback for climate action.
But beyond Trump and his circle, there remains deep concern about climate change, especially among younger people. Support for climate policy remains high in the US and around the world. And studies based on data from 60,000 people in more than 60 countries suggest individuals’ concern about climate change is widely underestimated.
So now is a good time to remember that efforts to tackle the climate crisis – both in Australia and globally – are much bigger than one man. Here are ten reasons to remain hopeful.
Beyond Trump and his circle, there remains deep concern about climate change around the world. HAYOUNG JEON/EPA
1. The global clean energy transition can’t be halted
4. The federal government is not everything in the US
When Trump was last in power, he withdrew the US from some climate commitments, such as the Paris Agreement. But many state and local governments powered ahead with climate policy, and that will happen this time around, too. For example, California – the world’s fifth largest economy – plans to eliminate its greenhouse gas footprint by 2045. Even Texas, a Republican heartland, is leading a shift toward wind and solar power.
5. The US climate movement will be more energised than ever
During Trump’s first presidency, the US climate movement developed policy proposals for a “Green New Deal”. Many of these proposals were later implemented by the Biden administration. Initial reactions to Trump’s re-election suggest we can expect similar policy advocacy this time around.
Efforts to tackle the climate crisis are much bigger than one man in the White House. Kevin Wolf/AP
6. Global climate cooperation is bigger than Trump
If Trump makes good on his promise to leave the Paris Agreement (again), he will only be leaving the room where the world’s future is being shaped. The US has walked away from global climate agreements before – for example, refusing to join the Kyoto Protocol in 2001. But other nations rallied for global action, and will do so again.
7. The rules-based global order will remain
When a nation walks away from rules that have been agreed after decades of negotiation, responsible countries must work together to bolster global cooperation. This applies to trade and security – and climate is no different.
As our Foreign Minister Penny Wong recently explained, Australia, as a middle power on the world stage, wants:
a world where disputes are resolved by engagement, negotiation and by reference to rules [and] norms […] We don’t want a world in which disputes are resolved by power alone.
8. Australian diplomacy matters
Australia is seeking to co-host the United Nations climate talks with Pacific island countries in 2026, and is emerging as the favourite. Hosting the conference, known as COP31, would be a chance for Australia to help broker a new era of international climate action, even if the US opts out under Trump.
Hosting the talks would also help cement Australia’s place in the Pacific and assist our Pacific neighbours to deal with the climate threat.
Co-hosting COP31 would help assist our Pacific neighbours to deal with the climate threat. Mick Tsikas/AAP
9. Australia’s clean energy shift is accelerating
About 40% of Australia’s main national electricity grid is poweredby renewables and this is set to rise to 80% by 2030. Some states are surging ahead – for example, South Australia is aiming for 100% renewables by 2027.
Australians love clean energy at home, too. One in three households have rooftop solar installed, making us a world-leader in the technology’s uptake. Trump’s occupation of the Oval Office cannot stop this momentum.
10. Trump cannot change the science of climate change
The science is clear – burning coal, oil and gas fuels climate change and increases the risk of disasters that are harming communities right now. In Australia, we need look no further than the Black Summer bushfires in 2019-20 and unprecedented Lismore floods in 2022.
The devastating floods in Spain remind us that climate change has arrived. ANA ESCOBAR/EPA
On gloomy days – like, say, the election of a climate denier to the White House – it might feel humanity won’t rise to Earth’s biggest existential challenge. But there are many reasons for hope. The vast majority of us support policies to tackle climate change, and in many cases, the momentum is virtually unstoppable.
Wesley Morgan, Research Associate, Institute for Climate Risk and Response, UNSW Sydney and Ben Newell, Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Director of the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk and Response, UNSW Sydney
Conservative MP Priti Patel speaking at the Heritage Foundation in 2021. Credit: GB News / Facebook
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint proposes sweeping anti-climate policies.
New Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel earlier this year welcomed into Parliament a radical U.S. organisation behind Donald Trump’s hard-right plan for a second term as president.
As reported by DeSmog, Conservative MP Patel met with Kevin Roberts and Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation in March, praising the pair on her Facebook page as “our friends across the pond” who stand for “Conservative values and beliefs at home and abroad”.
Roberts is the president of the Heritage Foundation, while Gardiner is the director of its ‘Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom’.
The Heritage Foundation is an ultra-conservative group that authored the controversial Project 2025 blueprint for a second Donald Trump term, which proposes a range of radical anti-climate policies, including slashing restrictions on fossil fuel extraction, scrapping investment in renewable energy, and gutting the Environmental Protection Agency.
Project 2025 has been accused of being “extreme” and “authoritarian” for setting out a plan to rapidly “reform” the U.S. government by shuttering bureaus and offices, overturning regulations, and replacing thousands of public sector employees with hand-picked political allies of Trump. The agenda also proposes radical tax cuts, and a crackdown on reproductive rights.
On Wednesday (6 November), following Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, Roberts sent an email on behalf of the foundation, saying that: “starting now, we will execute our plans to dismantle the administrative state.”
At least 140 authors of Project 2025 worked for the last Trump administration, according to CNN, while several are expected to hold positions in the next Trump White House.
Patel also gave a speech about national security to the Heritage Foundation, hosted by Gardiner, in November 2021. Patel was at the time serving as home secretary, and her address was published on the UK government website.
This news comes as the Conservative Party realigns itself after the election of new leader Kemi Badenoch, positioning itself as having better relations with the incoming Trump administration.
In her first Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) this week, Badenoch called on Labour not to oppose a Trump address to Parliament, and asked whether Foreign Secretary David Lammy had apologised to the Republican for labelling him as a “neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath” in 2020.
Patel was appointed to Badenoch’s new shadow cabinet earlier this week, alongside Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, who also has ties to the Heritage Foundation.
In February, Jenrick – who came second in the recent Tory leadership election – gave a speech to the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC entitled, “Securing Sovereign Borders in an Age of Mass Migration”.
Project 2025 proposes new sweeping restrictions on immigration into the U.S., while setting the foundations for mass deportations – a key promise of Trump’s 2024 campaign.
After being introduced by Roberts, Jenrick praised the foundation, and described meeting with and learning from Heritage while working as an intern for Condoleeza Rice, who served as secretary of state under Republican President George W. Bush.
Jenrick also praised the event’s co-host Gardiner, whom Jenrick described as “the special relationship made flesh”. He said Gardiner, who writes a regular column for the Daily Telegraph, “creates links between conservatives here and in the UK”.
As revealed by Democracy For Sale and Byline Times, Donald Trump and U.S. Republican campaigns received more than $45 million (£35 million) from donors who have funded the influential network of hard-wing Tufton Street think tanks in the UK.
“That senior Conservatives would take time out to travel halfway around the world to give talks at a pro-Trump think tanks is very revealing,” said Peter Geoghegan, editor of Democracy For Sale. “We need to be aware that the dark money that fuelled the likes of the Heritage Foundation is washing up in Britain, where secretive Tufton Street think tanks refuse to declare their donors but take millions from pro-Trump U.S. conservatives.”
A Heritage Foundation spokesperson previously told DeSmog: “Project 2025 is a coalition of conservatives who wrote ‘Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise’ which was published in April 2023, before any candidate declared a run for office. Project 2025 does not speak for any candidate or campaign.”
Project 2025 and Climate Denial
Project 2025 proposes replacing green investment with the further deregulation of the oil and gas industry.
Speaking at an event co-hosted by the Heritage Foundation and the Hungarian Danube Institute in September, key Trump ally Robert Wilkie – who served as U.S. veterans’ affairs secretary from 2018 to 2021 – confirmed that his former boss would “kill” climate budgets.
The Heritage Foundation received over £4.9 million between 1997 and 2017 from groups linked to the fossil fuel giant Koch Industries. The brothers behind the company, Charles and the late David Koch, have been the principal funders of climate denial groups in the U.S. since the 1980s.
As revealed by DeSmog, advisory groups working on Project 2025 have received at least $9.6 million from Charles Koch since 2020, along with at least $21.5 million from the Sarah Scaife Foundation, which is funded by the Mellon oil and banking fortune.
The Heritage Foundation has disputed these figures, though has not offered its own calculations. A spokesperson previously told DeSmog: “Heritage research is independent and accurate, these numbers are not.”
At a 2022 Heritage Foundation event, Nile Gardiner said: “I do think the British government needs to rethink the whole green energy agenda. It’s not a conservative agenda, in fact it’s a socialist agenda”. He added: “I think net zero has become basically a form of religion, and anyone who questions the dogma on this immediately is accused of being a heretic.”
As DeSmog has reported, Kemi Badenoch has regularly criticised the UK’s green ambitions, describing herself as a “net zero sceptic” during her Conservative conference speech in October.
During the leadership contest, Badenoch published a 40-page manifesto that cited the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, a U.S. group led by former advisors to Trump, which has likened climate science to believing the earth is flat.
Jenrick has also attacked net zero policies and has advocated for increased fossil fuel extraction, including the development of new coal mines.
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark RichardsOrcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels. Second version, corrected text.
People drive along a road littered with fallen power lines after the passing of Hurricane Rafael in San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba, November 7, 2024
AMAGNITUDE-6.8 earthquake shook eastern Cuba on Sunday, after the socialist island had already suffered weeks of hurricanes and power cuts.
The epicentre of the quake was about 25 miles south of Bartolome Maso, according to a report by the US Geological Survey.
The impact was felt across the east of the island, including in bigger cities such as Santiago de Cuba, as well as Holguin and Guantanamo.
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On Wednesday, Hurricane Rafael, a Category 3 storm, ripped through western Cuba, with strong winds knocking out power across the island and destroying hundreds of homes.
In October, the island was hit by blackouts lasting for days, a product of Cuba’s energy crisis largely caused by the six-decade-old illegal US blockade, which prevents the import of vital parts for even minor repairs.
Shortly afterwards, a powerful hurricane struck the eastern part of the island, killing at least six people.
