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mary robinson
Former UN Human Rights Head: EU Must Step Up on Climate Because US Is Being 'Stupidly' Led
The interview with Mary Robinson comes as the Trump administration seeks to undercut climate research and congressional Republicans target portions of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
May 15, 2025
Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson is urging the European Union to step up and lead the way on combating the climate emergency in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle the U.S. response to the crisis. Her remarks come as congressional Republicans are moving ahead with a plan to scale back Democrats' signature climate law passed in 2022.
Speaking on a Thursday episode of the podcast "Radio Schuman" from Euronews, Robinson said that she is "hoping that there will be a sense that actually the E.U. now has an opportunity, because the United States is being badly led on climate, actually stupidly led on climate."
Robinson highlighted the fact that Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement, the global treaty aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, reprising a move from his first term in office. She also noted the Trump administration's efforts to undercut climate research. In April, the Trump administration dismissed hundreds of scientists and experts working on the 6th National Climate Assessment, the government's flagship climate report.
These moves from the U.S. come as the E.U. has tempered its climate ambitions.
When asked whether she's critical of how the E.U. is currently handling climate change, Robinson said that the "E.U. is taking a long time, and we would need to see leadership now, but it's better to get good leadership than rush leadership."
As part of an independent group of global leaders called The Elders, Robinson recently met with E.U. officials where she and her fellow leaders sought to "encourage Europe to step up."
"The E.U. should step up on climate and nature and fulfill the commitments that are necessary," she told the Euronews.
On top of the actions by the Trump administration Robinson highlighted, a GOP megabill currently making its way through Congress includes provisions that target the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—a move that green groups have slammed.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has approved a portion of the bill that would take back billions of dollars in unspent funds from IRA grant programs, and Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee are pressing ahead with a portion of the bill that repeals clean energy incentives under the IRA.
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Failures of World Leaders Risk Collapse of International Order
To step back from the precipice we are at, those in positions of power must show long-view leadership to build a better world for current and future generations. But time is running out.
Jun 01, 2024
Note: At the conclusion of their board meeting in São Paulo, The Elders this week called on world leaders to uphold international law and prioritize multilateral cooperation to build a better world for current and future generations. The following was their message to those leaders and the world at large.
The world stands on the edge of a precipice. The foundations of international law and multilateral cooperation are at serious risk of collapse due to cumulative failures of political leadership. We face the most perilous moment since the Second World War.
The United Nations and other institutions created to promote the stability and accountability that come through the rule of law are under attack. The growing climate of impunity for states and leaders, who show no respect for the principles on which they were founded, may take us to a point of no return.
The principles of the UN Charter risk being subsumed by aggressive nationalism and great power rivalry. This is not in any state’s long-term interest, given the existential threats to humanity that can only be tackled by global cooperation within a framework of agreed rules.
The rule of law must be applied consistently. Double standards allow autocrats to frame the universal values of human rights and international law enshrined in the UN Charter as Western constructs. They are not. They serve the interests of every country.
International law must be applied universally. No country is above the law. But the double standards being displayed by some states, particularly the most powerful, weaken the credibility of global institutions charged with upholding the rule of law.
Russia’s war on Ukraine remains an act of aggression against a sovereign state and a fundamental attack on the UN Charter with global ramifications. Russian leaders must be held accountable. We support the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) efforts to bring them to justice.
The ICC and the International Court of Justice are both fulfilling their mandates to hold parties in the Israel-Hamas conflict to account under international law.
We oppose any attempts to de-legitimize this work, and threats of punitive measures and sanctions against the ICC Prosecutor or other officials.
The rule of law must be applied consistently. Double standards allow autocrats to frame the universal values of human rights and international law enshrined in the UN Charter as Western constructs. They are not. They serve the interests of every country.
The crumbling of the international order can be seen in the proliferation of conflicts, neglected by the world’s leaders and media, affecting 2 billion people in countries including Myanmar, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Haiti.
The failure last week to agree a new pandemics treaty for approval by the World Health Assembly is another example of weak leadership. Scientists are clear that we risk another lethal pandemic. The world has not learned the lessons from COVID-19. We urgently need leaders to engage directly to secure a global agreement to prepare for, prevent and respond to such pandemics, so the world can cope better next time.
With vital negotiations approaching on the future of the world’s climate and biodiversity, countries must have confidence that when they make agreements with each other, those commitments will be implemented.
Now is the time for leaders to be honest with their people. The unpredictability and instability that comes when the rule of law is not guaranteed threatens the security of all countries. In a year of multiple elections, citizens also have a responsibility to cast their vote wisely, choosing leaders who take a longer view of protecting their interests, and rejecting populists who exploit fears and foster division for short-term gain.
As we conclude our board meeting in Brazil, we look to the country’s leadership to seize the opportunities presented by November’s G20 Summit and the major climate conference (COP30) in 2025, to work with other countries on restoring the credibility of the multilateral system and the trust which underpins it.
To step back from the precipice we are at, those in positions of power must show long-view leadership to build a better world for current and future generations. But time is running out to strengthen the institutions that make possible the collaboration needed to do so.
The Elders are:
Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and Chair of The Elders
Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary-General and Deputy Chair of The Elders
Graça Machel, Founder of the Graça Machel Trust, Co-founder and Deputy Chair of The Elders
Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway and former Director-General of the WHO
Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and former head of the UN Development Programme
Elbegdorj Tsakhia, former President and Prime Minister of Mongolia
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and co-chair of the Taskforce on Justice
Denis Mukwege, physician and human rights advocate, Nobel Peace Laureate
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia and Nobel Peace Laureate
Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia and Nobel Peace Laureate
Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico
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The Elders Chair Mary Robinson Calls For Biden to Stop Arming Israel
In his meetings with the U.S. leader, Ireland's prime minister must "make it clear that Israel depends on the United States for military aid and for money," said Robinson, a former Irish president.
Mar 15, 2024
The Elders chair Mary Robinson on Friday highlighted the unique leverage that the United States has with Israel and suggested that the Biden administration should stop giving the Middle Eastern nation military assistance for its assault on the Gaza Strip.
Robinson, the former president of Ireland, conducted an on-camera interview with Irish public broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann just before her country's prime minister, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, met with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House.
"Yes the humanitarian situation is utterly catastrophic and dire, reducing a people to famine, undermining all our values, but the message I want to deliver on behalf of the Elders is a direct message to our Taoiseach Leo Varadkar," Robinson said.
"We need a cease-fire and we need the opening up of Gaza with every avenue... for aid to get in."
In his meeting with Biden, Varadkar "should not spend too much time on the dire humanitarian situation, and the ships, and the rest of it," she asserted. "He has the opportunity to deliver a political message in a very direct way. The United States can influence Israel by not continuing to provide arms. It has provided a lot of the arms... that have been used on the Palestinian people."
Since Israel declared war in response to the Hamas-led attack on October 7, Israeli forces have killed at least 31,490 people in Gaza—including people seeking food aid—and injured another 73,439. The assault has also devastated civilian infrastructure, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques, and displaced the vast majority of the enclave's 2.3 million residents.
Israel is also restricting desperately needed humanitarian aid into the Hamas-governed territory, and Palestinians have begun starving to death—which people around the world point to as further proof that the Israeli government is defying an International Court of Justice (ICJ) order to prevent genocidal acts as the South Africa-led case moves forward at The Hague.
The United States gives Israel $3.8 billion in annual military aid, and since October 7, Biden—who faces a genocide complicity case in federal court—has fought for another $14.3 billion while his administration has repeatedly bypassed Congress to arm Israeli forces. Critics, including some lawmakers, argue that continuing to send weapons to Israel violates U.S. law.
The far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "is on the wrong side of history, completely—is making the United States complicit in reducing a people to famine, making the world complicit," Robinson told RTÉ. "We're all watching. It is absolutely horrific what is happening."
Elders’ Chair Mary Robinson says President Biden should not continue to provide arms to Israel.
“The United States can influence Israel by not continuing to provide arms… The Government of Prime Minister Netanyahu is on the wrong side of history, completely. It’s making the… pic.twitter.com/fN3ptMjktz
— The Elders (@TheElders) March 15, 2024
"So Leo Varadkar has access today to President Biden," she said. "He must use this completely politically at all levels with the speaker of the House, with everyone, to make it clear that Israel depends on the United States for military aid and for money. That's what will change everything."
"We need a cease-fire and we need the opening up of Gaza with every avenue... for aid to get in, because the situation's so bad, and we need the political way forward, which is the two-state solution," she added. "So we need an Israeli government agreeing to that, and only the United States can put the pressure [on Israel]."
Robinson, who spent five years as the United Nations high commissioner for human rights after her presidency ended in 1997, has been part of the Elders since Nelson Mandela, the late anti-apartheid South African president, announced the group in 2007.
She has made multiple statements during the five-month Israeli assault on Gaza, including calling on Israel to comply with the ICJ's January ruling and warning Biden the previous month that his "support for Israel's indiscriminate bombing of Gaza is losing him respect all over the world."
"The U.S. is increasingly isolated, with allies like Australia, Canada, India, Japan, and Poland switching their votes in the U.N. General Assembly to support an immediate humanitarian cease-fire," she said in December. "The destruction of Gaza is making Israel less safe. President Biden's continuing support for Israel's actions is also making the world less safe, the Security Council less effective, and U.S. leadership less respected. It is time to stop the killing."
US President Joe Biden and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar pledged to work to secure a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza cast a shadow on the annual St. Patrick's Day reception at the White House https://t.co/gQBGDZZ4Ud pic.twitter.com/QGEPSzOk2G
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 15, 2024
Speaking to press at the Oval Office alongside Biden on Friday, Varadkar
said that he was "keen to talk about the situation in Gaza," and noted his view "that we need to have a cease-fire as soon as possible to get food and medicine in" to the besieged territory.
"On Sunday, the taoiseach will also gift Mr. Biden a bowl of shamrock as part of an annual tradition to mark St Patrick's Day," RTÉ reported Friday. "Mr. Varadkar started the trip on Monday, and since then has spoken several times... about how he will use the special platform of the St Patrick's Day visit to press Mr. Biden to back a cease-fire in the Gaza, while also thanking the U.S. for leadership in support for Ukraine."
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