Trump Moves to Dismantle US Climate Law - Now Comes the Legal Test

About this episode

The episode discusses the Trump administration's repeal of the endangerment finding and its implications for US climate policy.

The Trump administration last week announced the repeal of the ‘endangerment finding’ - the 2009 determination that climate change threatens public health and welfare. It may sound arcane, but this piece of legislation empowered the US federal government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. This decision weakens the regulatory backbone of American climate policy, and may reshape the country’s emissions trajectory for years to come. So what happens next? This week, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson consider the politics, the economics and the climate reality of this move. And Tom calls friend of the show Manish Bapna , President and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, whose organisation is preparing to challenge the rollback in court. Speaking to us just as the case was filed, Manish explains why the endangerment finding has long been the legal bedrock of federal climate action, and how the case could climb all the way to the Supreme Court. Until then, uncertainty reins: is this a temporary political detour - or a structural turning point for US climate leadership? And if federal authority falters, will states, businesses and markets keep the…

People in this episode

Hosts: Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, Paul Dickinson

Guest: Manish Bapna

Topics covered

• climate policy
• legal challenges
• environmental regulation
• US government
• greenhouse gas emissions
• politics
• economics

Keywords

• climate change
• endangerment finding
• greenhouse gases
• regulatory policy
• Supreme Court
• climate leadership
• legal action

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Natural Resources Defense Council, EPA

Places: United States

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