Climate Defenders Blast Trump's 'Reckless' UN Speech

"A thinly-veiled threat to global peace, progress, and survival" was how one climate justice organization described US President Donald Trump's hourlong address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday as the international community took in Trump's attacks on global cooperation, migration, and the consensus among scientists that human activity is causing the climate crisis and a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy is needed to avoid the worst impacts.

Namrata Chowdhary, head of public engagement at 350.org, said the president's speech offered proof of a warning from UN Secretary-General António Guterres just hours before, in which Guterres had said the world has "entered an age of reckless disruption and relentless human suffering," with peace and progress "buckling under the weight of impunity, inequality, and indifference."

Trump drew gasps from the assembled world leaders when he said predictions about the climate emergency by the UN and the global science community "were wrong" and "were made by stupid people."

The BBC reported that some diplomats "could be seen shaking their heads" as the president called climate change "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the comment showed Trump "is representing his fossil fuel billionaire friends, not science."

"Climate change is REAL. It is an existential threat to the planet and future generations. We must transform our energy systems away from fossil fuels," said the senator.

Guterres' warning "was only emphasized by the erratic speech given by Donald Trump: Reckless. Disruptive. Indifferent," said Chowdhary. "And mocking with impunity the relentless suffering around the world, in a speech hard to distinguish from reality TV of the worst kind."

Trump's speech came weeks after hundreds of people were killed in one day by flooding in Pakistan—a disaster fueled by increasingly intense monsoon seasons that scientists have said are caused by fossil fuel emissions and planetary heating.

Earlier this year, a study by British and Italian researchers found that deadly flooding in Texas was also made significantly worse by the impacts of climate change.

"Trump’s remarks, which downplayed the urgency of climate action and pushed for expanded fossil fuel investment, come as the world continues to experience record-breaking heat, fires, and floods," said Chowdhary. "At the upcoming UN climate summit, world leaders face a stark choice: Stand with people and the planet, or with the fossil fuel industry."

Mauro Vieira, the minister of foreign affairs in Brazil, which will host the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in November, told CNN that Trump's attacks on policies demanding a shift to renewable energy do not change Brazil's position on the climate.

"We believe in renewables,” said Vieira. “This will save the planet. That’s our position."

JL Andrepont, US senior policy analyst at 350.org, emphasized that a majority of Trump's own constituents know that the climate crisis is being caused by fossil fuels and support a shift away from them.

"This stream of lies is part of the same fossil-fueled billionaire agenda that got tens of thousands into the NYC streets this weekend, calling for climate justice," said Andrepont. "The leader of the world’s top polluting country is trying to tell the people—from our Pacific family members to the climate- and conflict-displaced peoples he’s deporting—that their lived reality is not real. But there are far more of us calling for human rights than there are of him and his cronies."

"We refuse to be pawns in Trump’s unjust quest to pad the pockets of billionaires like him," added Andrepont. "It’s time to draw the line and make billionaires in and out of government pay for the damage they’ve caused and fund the needs of the people.”