Climate Action in Trump 2.0

For those of us with an old-fashioned commitment to justice, science, and common decency, the 2024 U.S. election was a lot of dark things. But one thing it wasn’t? A referendum on climate action or environmental protection.

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It’s true that President-Elect Donald Trump prefers golf courses and MAGA merch to national parks and wildlife; he’s a noted climate change denier and shameless booster of dirty fossil fuels. It’s also true that those character flaws weren’t the same ones that got him reelected.

There’s no denying that Trump’s next nine holes at the White House will be an ugly obstacle to saving the planet. But the silver lining is this: When it comes to the climate and extinction crises, the American people overwhelmingly want action.

The reality is that sustaining a livable climate, breathable air, and drinkable water is still a political winner, despite the billions of dollars constantly being spent by private interests to greenwash killer technologies and tear down regulations. According to a 2023 Pew Research study, two-thirds of Americans think corporations aren’t doing enough to curb climate change. At least 80% want to help endangered species and wild places. In a country where so much is decided on the strength of a paper-thin margin, including who occupies the White House, those numbers are a powerful signal that the vast majority are asking for a stable planet with abundant wildlife.

During his campaign, Trump distanced himself from the extremist Project 2025—a radical Christian nationalist proposal that aims to gut environmental laws, along with other dangerous moves like giving unprecedented authority to the president, abolishing the Department of Education, and quashing civil rights and science—as soon as he understood how unpopular it was. It remains unpopular today. Now that he’s won the presidency, though, with both houses of Congress under GOP domination, Trump has less to gain personally by keeping the extremists at arm’s length. And for him, personal gain is where the buck stops.

Read more: Trump Will Set Back Climate Action. But He Can’t Stop It Entirely

In the face of this, those of us clamoring for action on climate and extinction can’t throw up our hands in despair. We have a brief window of time to avert the worst scenarios, and for the next four years we’ll face antagonists at the top. That means we have to fight from the bottom, the middle, and all sides.

In the next two months, President Biden can help shore us up against ruin by filling all 47 current judicial vacancies in district and appellate courts. For decades, a top priority of Republicans has been to shift the judiciary to the hard right; this reached its zenith in Trump’s first term and left us a court system stacked with zealots and a corrupt Supreme Court that no longer heeds the will or welfare of the people.

Democrats need to respond with equal force to rebuild the integrity of our third branch of government by appointing judges who accept science and the rule of law. So far Biden has done relatively well filling vacancies; he needs to finish the job, and fast.

Next, after Inauguration Day, states and public-interest groups must redouble their efforts to beat back the deregulatory agenda. States are the natural first line of resistance to bad policy emanating from the Trump White House—a bulwark, in this embattled moment, against a federal government essentially bent on self-immolation.

Much can be done by states and cities to get rid of fossil fuels and speed up the shift to clean energy. In red states not disposed to resistance, individuals, neighborhoods and towns will have to rise up from the grassroots and insist on progress. Being involved is now a moral imperative, and it’s important to work toward local wins like getting cities to adopt green energy and vehicle procurement policies, move building codes quickly toward zero pollution, or expand green spaces—the list of possible actions is long. (And as soon as you can, ditch that gas car, too.)

During Trump’s first term, the hundreds of lawsuits launched against his attacks on the successful programs that protect our climate and health had an 80% success rate. And although he’s coming into this round armed with a blueprint for annihilation, dismantling longstanding rules involves red tape—and time. A full-court press in the judicial system is more important than ever to minimize the damage.

All states should ramp up electric vehicle sales rapidly, as California is doing, and resist industry attempts to fast-track more oil and gas development on federal lands and waters. Trump would like to sacrifice every last publicly owned acre to oil and gas extraction; states must oppose this. They can do so by reviewing each new proposal for legal compliance and heading to court to enforce the law—and the people who live in those states need to support those efforts.

As Trump seeks to free polluters from government restraint, states should legislate to hold them accountable, passing laws like Vermon’s Climate Superfund bill. In 2024 Vermont became the first state to enact legislation requiring large fossil fuel producers to pay a fee for the harms caused by their oil, gas and coal. New York’s bill is awaiting the governor’s signature by year’s end; California should pass its own bill, which stalled in the state Senate this summer, promptly in the next session. Climate Superfund legislation complements the lawsuits that have already been filed by states and local governments to force fossil fuel polluters to pay for the damage off which they profit so handsomely—critical lawsuits that must be continued.

State public utility commissions—the bodies that regulate monopoly utilities—can prohibit those utilities from building new fossil gas plants to fulfill the skyrocketing demands of AI and data centers. Unfortunately, utilities like Dominion in Virginia, Duke Energy in North Carolina, and AEP in Ohio all plan to build new gas plants. But we the people can do something about it: Customers and community groups can get involved as public commenters and challenge the rate hikes being imposed on them to pay for those polluting plants.

States should also develop more rooftop, community solar, and other responsible renewable sources through state and municipal programs and laws. Net energy metering—a policy that allows rooftop-solar owners to sell self-produced energy back to the grid—has helped rooftop solar flourish across the country, but these programs have come under attack in California and North Carolina and need to be defended. (Florida successfully rescued its program.)

During the first half of Trump’s first term, the GOP held both chambers of Congress—as it will in Trump’s next term, at least until 2026. Despite that congressional control, it failed in its efforts to cut down the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act, all of which play a major role in addressing the climate crisis. Republican members of Congress will renew their assault on these fundamental laws in the coming term, so protecting them needs to be a top Democrat priority—and all of us, whether our representatives in Congress are red or blue, need to voice our personal opposition to any weakening of our safety nets.

Climate activists have begun to expand their reach, allying with social-justice, public-health, labor, and civil-rights groups. But that reach should really have no limit at all: Every one of us has a stake in survival. Mass mobilization is inevitable as almost every year is hotter than the one before and we’re battered by storm after storm and fire after fire.

Why not make it happen now, while we still have so much to save?