US top climate negotiator: 'We won't revert back' as Trump prepares to take over

abcnews.go.com:

At the U.N. climate talks, U.S. Climate Adviser John Podesta said that Trump will likely pull America out of the landmark Paris Agreement and try to roll back many of the Biden Administration’s signature climate moves, including the 2022 Inflation Redu...

BAKU, Azerbaijan — No matter what kind of U-turn President-Elect Donald Trump will make on climate change, America's clean energy economy won't reverse into the dirty past, a combative but “bitterly disappointed” top American climate negotiator said Monday.

During the first day of the U.N. climate talks, COP29, Climate Adviser John Podesta struck a defiant but realistic tone in a press conference. He said Trump will likely pull the United States out of the landmark Paris Agreement and try to roll back many of the Biden Administration's signature climate moves, including the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that included $375 billion in climate spending.

“Are we facing new headwinds? Absolutely. But we won’t revert back to the energy system of the 1950s. No way,” Podesta said.

“Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable,” Podesta said paraphrasing a Biden speech last week. “This is not the end of our fight for a cleaner, safer planet. Facts are still facts. Science is still science. The fight is bigger than one election, one political cycle in one country. This fight is bigger, still, because we are all living through a year defined by the climate crisis in every country of the world.”

Podesta ran through a shopping list of climate disasters, starting with the hottest day recorded, July 22, continuing with floods, hurricanes and droughts.

“None of this is a hoax. It is real. It’s a matter of life and death,” Podesta said. “Fortunately, many in our country and