Biden says ‘nobody can reverse’ his climate agenda. But Trump is poised to try.In a speech from the Brazilian rainforest, the president didn’t mention his successor by name, but urged him to build upon a “strong foundation” of clean-energy policies.MANAUS, Brazil — President Joe Biden on Sunday urged the next administration to build upon his climate agenda as Donald Trump threatens to tear his policies to shreds when he returns to office in January.Speaking on a dirt path at the Museu da Amazônia, a nature reserve nestled along the confluence of the Negro and Amazon rivers, Biden was surrounded by lush rainforest. Wearing a blue collared shirt and his trademark aviators, the president said when he departs the White House in January, he will leave Trump — whom he did not mention by name — with a “strong foundation to build on, if they choose to do so.”“Some may seek to deny or delay the clean energy revolution that’s underway in America, but nobody — nobody — can reverse it. Nobody. Not when so many people, regardless of party or politics, are enjoying its benefits. Not when countries around the world are harnessing the clean energy revolution to pull ahead themselves,” Biden said. “The question now is which government will stand in the way, and which will seize the enormous economic opportunity?”Biden hoped his historic trip to the Amazon would come on the heels of Vice President Kamala Harris’ election, confidently telling the world that his climate agenda would be carried on. But Trump’s win has recast the visit, magnifying the fragility of some of Biden’s policies in less friendly hands and making the complicated logistics of a presidential visit to the dense rainforest seem somewhat quaint.Even some of the president’s announcements on Sunday were largely symbolic. Biden signed a proclamation designating Nov. 17 as International Conservation Day, and he announced additional U.S. funding for the Amazon fund, which requires congressional action and is unlikely to get out the door with Republicans in control.He also announced that the U.S. has met its pledge to increase international climate financing to more than $11 billion by 2024, according to a White House fact sheet. That’s a six-fold increase from the $1.5 billion spent when he took office.Trump’s election is also complicating Biden’s hopes of using the visit to the Amazon to cement his climate legacy. Members of his own party have blamed the president for Trump’s victory, arguing he should have never run for reelection and waited far too long to drop out of the race after it became apparent he could not win. Some Democrats feel that Trump’s victory, and the consequences that follow, should be a defining part of how the Biden presidency is remembered.Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax,” is likely to pull out of the Paris accord, roll back environmental protections and increase production of oil and gas — which is already at an all-time high. Trump’s transition team is reportedly discussing ways to eliminate the electric vehicle tax credit championed by Biden. And he’s already stacking his Cabinet and West Wing with officials eager to rip apart federal programs aimed at reducing air and water pollution.Trump on Saturday announced he’d selected Chris Wright to lead the Energy Department. Wright, the head of a Denver-based oilfield service company, has disputed the role of climate change in causing extreme weather.After the Amazon visit, Biden will travel to Rio de Janeiro for the annual G20 summit, where the future of global climate policy is likely to be a major point of discussion. But it’s unclear how much influence the U.S. will have in the discussion this year. At the annual United Nations climate summit taking place this week in Azerbaijan, global leaders were already discussing a path forward without the U.S. playing a key leadership role.Biden ticked through his administration’s actions on Sunday, pointing to his sweeping legislative accomplishments that have unlocked $1 trillion for clean energy technologies and the factories needed to build them. And he called the fight against climate change a “defining cause” of his presidency.“Today, I’m proud to be here, the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Amazon rainforest — to recommit to protecting the rainforest like this one,” Biden said.He also met with local and Indigenous leaders working to preserve the Amazon ecosystem and took a helicopter tour of the rainforest. The president flew over the drought-stricken Rio Negro, a major tributary of the Amazon River and traveled over the outskirts of Manaus, with leafy green trees spanning as far as the eye could see.Ahead of the trip, White House officials downplayed suggestions that Trump’s election would overshadow the president’s visit to the Amazon. They stressed the historic nature of the visit and emphasized the preeminence of combating climate change in his administration.“I don’t think it clouds his trip,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when asked about the election results. “He’s very much looking forward to going to the Amazon. It’s a historic trip, obviously, for a president to make.”But as Biden wandered through the rainforest at the Museu da Amazônia, macaws squawking overhead in the tall tree cover — it was a reminder of all that was at stake in the global fight against climate change, and the rapidly shrinking role that Biden can play in it.
