The global shift forcing Britain to change course on net zero
26 January 2025 6:00am GMT
Drill, baby, drill. With three words and the stroke of a pen, Donald Trump wrenched the world’s biggest economy away from net zero.
The president’s executive orders – signed in a flurry of activity last week – withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords and scrapped Joe Biden’s green deal “scam”, as well as the “insanely costly” electric vehicle mandate.
“We’re going to let people buy the car they want to buy,” Trump told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Trump has vowed to tap the “liquid gold under our feet”, declaring a “national energy emergency” that he will use to support a new wave of oil and gas drilling in America.
As far as he is concerned, the environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda embraced by Wall Street is now in the rear-view mirror. Green energy, diversity and red tape have been consigned to history.
Yet on the other side of the Atlantic, not everyone has received the memo.
In London, Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, was unbowed. He declared that net zero was “unstoppable” despite the president’s actions.