BAKU, Azerbaijan — At the United Nations climate talks bordering the Caspian Sea, a parade of leaders stood at the podium this week to urge the world to “seize the opportunities of tomorrow” — in the words of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — and avoid disasters that would “put inflation on steroids” — U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell.
In a cavernous meeting hall nearby, U.S. President Joe Biden’s top climate diplomat announced what will almost certainly be a short-lived fee on methane pollution from the oil and gas industry.
But an ocean and a continent away, President-elect Donald Trump was making a rapid-fire series of personnel moves aimed at delivering on his promises to dismember Biden’s climate legacy and erect an alternative vision for government.
The split screen of events on opposite sides of the world is exposing the stark shift in power over global climate policy taking place in the new Trump era.
