republican nominee and former president donald trump won the 2024 presidential election against democratic nominee and current vice president kamala harris. 

the associated press called the race in the early morning of nov. 6. the final battleground state of arizona was called saturday evening, leaving trump with 312 electoral votes, including all seven swing states, and harris with 226 electoral votes. 

based on trump’s 2024 campaign platform, known as agenda47, the republican national committee (rnc) platform, and trump’s past denial of climate change, trump’s second term in office is likely to have far-reaching implications on climate change efforts.

energy production:

“republicans will unleash energy production from all sources, including nuclear, to immediately slash inflation and power american homes, cars, and factories with reliable, abundant, and affordable energy,” the rnc platform states. 

the rnc agenda also stated their goals of making america energy independent again and achieving lower energy prices than during trump’s first administration. 

on trump’s agenda47 website, regarding energy, they cited research from the heritage foundation, an organization “mobilizing” the conservative movement, stating biden has increased the cost of gas and oil by 50%. 

the agenda47 website also states biden’s climate regulations have caused the u.s. to surrender its economy to china. it also identified what they considered negative outcomes of biden’s climate regulations, including stopping drilling for oil in alaska’s arctic national wildlife refuge and canceling the keystone xl pipeline. according to agenda47, the pipeline would have “created 830,000 barrels of oil per day” for american refineries and “created high-paying jobs.”

paris climate accords: 

trump’s campaign website stated that if he wins the 2024 presidential election, he will exit the paris climate accords again.

united nations climate change states the paris climate accords is an international treaty designed to combat climate change. the treaty was adopted on dec. 12, 2015, by 196 countries, including the united states, at the climate change conference cop21 in paris, france. 

trump during his first administration announced his intentions to leave the paris climate accords on june 1, 2017, because of the “unfair economic burden” it left on americans. 

on his first day in office on jan. 20, 2021, president biden rejoined the paris climate accords. as part of rejoining the agreement, biden pledged to cut all greenhouse gas emissions from the u.s. electric sector by 2035 and make the u.s. a carbon-neutral country by 2050.

politico reported trump leaving the paris climate accords for a second time would mean the u.s. would no longer be among the 200 world governments that have made non-binding pledges to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

inflation reduction act:

one of biden’s main efforts to address climate change during his presidency was through the inflation reduction act (ira), signed on aug. 16, 2022, which provided funding for local projects focused on clean energy, climate mitigation and resilience, agriculture, and conservation-related investment.

trump said that if he wins the 2024 presidential election he would pull funds away from the biden administration’s inflation reduction act during his second term. trump did not specify what programs funded by the ira he would pull back on.

“it actually sets us back, as opposed to moves us forward,” trump said. “and [i will] rescind all unspent funds under the misnamed inflation reduction act.”

but in trump’s previous administration, the new york times reported that by the end of his presidency, trump had completed “rollbacks” on 98 environmental policies and was in progress on an additional 14. 

trump’s climate change denial:

before trump ran for president in 2016, he was known for calling climate change, or global warming, a “hoax”: “the concept of global warming was created by and for the chinese in order to make u.s. manufacturing non-competitive,” trump wrote on x in 2012. 

more recently, on sept. 29, three days after the impact of hurricane helene on the southeastern u.s., trump denied the existence of climate change, during a campaign rally in pennsylvania, calling it “one of the greatest scams of all time.”

trump did not address climate change in his victory speech. 

he will be inaugurated as president on jan. 20, 2025, on the west front of the u.s. capitol.