'Climate Change Greatest Con Job Ever': Trump Praises "Clean, Beautiful Coal"

The carbon footprint is a hoax fabricated by individuals with malicious intentions, declared President Trump.

United States:

He ridiculed renewables as a "joke," extolled "clean, beautiful coal" and proclaimed climate change the "greatest con job ever."

President Donald Trump utilized his UN comeback address on Tuesday to advocate for fossil fuels and criticize green technologies, just before a climate summit convened by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres aimed at motivating countries to submit updated emission-reduction plans.

The scathing, nearly hour-long speech criticized everything from immigration to what he characterized as the UN's inability to help establish peace in Gaza and Ukraine.

However, some of his most pointed criticisms targeted climate change -- apparently designed to appeal to a political base that views climate science as another battleground in America's culture wars, preceding a major climate announcement expected Wednesday from the United States' primary geopolitical competitor China.

"Climate change -- it's the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion," stated Trump, who received hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions from Big Oil during the 2024 election.

The "carbon footprint is a hoax made up by people with evil intentions, and they're heading down a path of total destruction."

Carbon footprint refers to the total quantity of greenhouse gas emissions caused by a person, group or product, measured in units of carbon dioxide (CO2) or carbon dioxide equivalents.

The term was actually popularized in the mid-2000s by an advertising agency working for oil supermajor BP, in what critics argue was an attempt to shift responsibility for emissions from corporations to individuals.

"We're getting rid of the falsely named renewables, by the way, they're a joke, they don't work, they're too expensive," he remarked at another point, regarding his administration's campaign against solar and wind, strengthened by new legislation that terminates clean energy tax credits.

The government has specifically targeted wind, attempting to obstruct projects nearing completion and creating new obstacles for permits.

Trump labeled the technology "so pathetic, so bad," and boasted that he had instead "unleashed" massive initiatives to drill for new oil, gas and coal reserves.

During his first term, President Trump withdrew from the Paris climate accord.

In his second term, Washington has not merely abandoned climate action but has gone on the offensive for oil and gas interests -- threatening to penalize countries that participate in the International Maritime Organization's carbon-pricing system for shipping and incorporating the sale of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) into trade agreements.

China, in contrast, offers a competing proposition, exporting green technologies including solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles globally.

"President Trump and his administration continue to disseminate lies and disinformation about climate science and the overwhelming benefits of clean energy, a significant disservice to the American people," Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists told AFP.

"Climate change is real, it's expensive, and people require genuine solutions, not propaganda designed to increase the profits of fossil fuel polluters."