Trump sheds tears over climate change and talks about conflict at the UN
President Donald Trump spoke with world leaders at the UN General Assembly and often criticised other countries.
The day before the UN Summit on Climate Change, President Donald Trump made a broad statement to the UN General Assembly on September 23, including calling the climate science and renewable energy initiatives “fraud” and “green fraud.”
Despite decades of evidence from the federal government and leading climate scientists around the world regarding the negative effects of extreme rainfall, drought and sea level rise as a result of warming climates, the president has doubled his previous efforts to downplay climate concerns and criticised many in Europe for its renewable energy efforts.
The president raised inaccurate information on global cooling theories of the early 20th century, raising questions about global warming and climate change. “In my opinion, this is the biggest fraudulent job done in the world to date.”
Climate scientists and environmental organizations responded immediately to the president’s remarks, citing his long history of calling climate science a “hoax” despite the periodic surges of temperatures across the world and across the US to record highs. Warming temperatures are associated with hurricane rainy, long droughts and more extreme rain events around the world.
“President Trump and his administration continue to vent lies and disinformation about the overwhelming benefits of climate science and clean energy. This is a serious damage to the American people.” “Climate change is here, it’s expensive, and people need real solutions, not propaganda designed to boost the benefits of fossil fuel polluters.”
The president’s remarks coincided with Climate Week, where businesses, global officials, scientists and nonprofits gathered in New York to discuss climate change efforts alongside a general assembly meeting. The UN Climate Summit will be held on Wednesday, September 24th, with China set forth this week’s latest target targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
For over a century, scientists have documented how fossil fuel emissions increase heat trapped gases in the atmosphere, shaking the balance of nature and warming the planets.
According to the World Resources Institute, global greenhouse gas emissions rose 51% between 1990 and 2021. Because most of these emissions come from energy production, governments around the world, including the US, have set goals to reduce emissions and increase wind and solar use to prevent the worst effects of climate change.
Greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy
To the United Nations, Trump touted his executive order to “unleash large-scale energy production,” and shyed Europe with a 37% reduction in its own carbon footprint.
“As for all of that sacrifices, more than that, it was completely wiped out, and then there have been some with a global increase of 54%, many of which come from China,” he said. He correctly asserted that China’s global carbon footprint from flammable fuels accounts for a large majority of the world’s current emissions. In 2022, the country’s emissions accounted for 31.1% of energy-related emissions, the International Energy Association reported.
President Trump told the General Assembly that “everything is bankrupt,” praised Germany for “returning where they were” with fossil fuels and nuclear weapons.
“I was right about everything,” Trump told the assembled leaders and officials. “And I’m saying that if you don’t run away from the green energy scam, your country will fail.”
However, Reuters recently reported that European manufacturing activities expanded in August for the first time since mid-2022, due to a surge in domestic demand and production volume, raising optimism about future production.
China’s cumulative greenhouse gas emissions have surpassed the emissions of 27 European Union members, but Cleitus said cumulative emissions from developed countries in the US have made the biggest contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, which have long been far ahead of the US, according to Carbon Brief. Cletos said the president could not point out that China’s emissions have skyrocketed as exports to US and European consumers are rising.
The president also did not point out that China has begun to cut greenhouse gas emissions as it moves forward in developing and producing renewable energy. The country has installed wind and solar projects faster than any other country, and today there is almost half of the world’s wind farms, USA Today previously reported. China’s carbon footprint from the electricity sector fell by almost 3% in the first half of this year, as solar power growth coincided with rising electricity demand.
In 2023, China combined more winds and sun than other parts of the world. In July 2025, the country accounted for 74% of all wind and solar projects under construction worldwide. In May, China’s solar capacity reached 1,000 gigawatts. The current solar capacity in the United States is 134 gigawatts.
China has previously disappointed some UN countries with its overwhelming goal of reducing greenhouse gases, but reaching emissions targets has led to increased interest in listening to what China could announce this week, Cleetus said. A recent analysis from Carbon Brief shows that the country’s record solar capacity addition could potentially target China to reduce emissions overall over 2025, with some analysts saying its greenhouse gas emissions could have peaked.
The Federal Government’s Changing Way on Climate Change
Federal scientists have warned about the negative effects of climate change since at least 1974. For decades, the US military has documented concerns about the increased impact of sea level rise on naval facilities and the challenges protecting national security amid thinning of Arctic sea ice.
The president cited some of the more disastrous climate predictions from decades ago, noting that they have yet to prove that they are true. Some of the president’s statements are Echo’s claims proposed by the Heritage Foundation and the fossil fuel pro-fuel organizations that worked to counter climate change actions.
The President did not mention Indigenous communities or Pacific Island countries engaged in migration efforts with Australia. This has reached an agreement with Australia to begin slowly relocating citizens. In Alaska, Oregon and elsewhere in the United States, the federal government has helped to develop plans to relocate or protect several tribal communities and villages in Alaskan villages. In early January 2025, the Bureau of Land Management website explained that the community is in an area where climate change is no longer inhabited and has mentioned eight times. That description was then changed to one climate reference.
During his first eight months of office, the administration oversaw many controversial steps to downplay the impact on climate change, including removing references to climate change from several federal websites, termination of Climate.gov websites, and the next installment of the national climate assessment. The United States has also withdrawn its participation in the next UN intergovernmental panel on climate change.
Hours after the president’s speech, Berkeley Earth released its global climate overview for August, saying it was the third warmest August since instrumental records began in 1850, and 2025 was 95.2% likely to be the third warmest year.
USA Today’s national correspondent, Dinah Voyles Pulver, covers climate change, weather and other news. Contact her at dpulver @usatoday.com or @dinahvp.
