Former Vice President Al Gore was in New York over the weekend for a leadership training session convened by the Climate Reality Project, his nonprofit organization.
On Saturday, in front of thousands of attendees, Mr. Gore highlighted growing climate risks but also spoke of progress. He blamed fossil fuel companies for increasing the production of plastics and promoting technology to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which he called “absolutely absurd”.
Mr. Gore then explained in an interview why he was not surprised that major oil and gas companies backed out of their decarbonization commitments. And he said he believes former President Donald J. Trump would lose his campaign to return to the White House. Following are excerpts from that conversation, edited and condensed for clarity.
Oil and gas companies recently gathered in Houston for the industry’s annual conference. Many of the big companies have gone back on their decarbonisation promises. In Houston, the head of Saudi Aramco he said the “fantasy of phasing out oil and gas” must be dispelled.
I don’t think their promises were sincere in the first place. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there was this sting in Europe’s access to fossil fuels that translated into crisis and demand in other parts of the world. There was a sudden increase in the effort to replace the Russian supplies. This has had a global impact on the price of fossil fuels and the profits of major companies.
When they got a taste of those higher windfalls, they were pressured by their investors to capitalize while the acquisition was good. So they simply decided en masse to abandon their commitments and just move on, without considering what they pretended to do in the past. I think it was always a scam. It remains to be seen whether they will be able to live up to their commitments without taking significant damage politically and in the business community.
What does this mean for the need to stop burning fossil fuels, which scientists say is imperative?
We need to change laws and policies. We need to stop the subsidies. We need to put a tax on carbon, just as we have already put a tax on methane. So-called carbon frontier adjustment mechanisms emerging elsewhere in the world offer a path to doing this.
Former President Donald J. Trump has made it clear that he will dismantle President Biden’s climate policies and promote fossil fuels. If he wins in November, what would that mean for the fight against global warming?
First, I refuse to accept the hypothetical. Trump is not going away. I don’t think he will win.
Why;
I think the long political tail of inflation will ease by November. I think America’s growing economic strength and labor market will continue to benefit President Biden. Trump is vulnerable to making more mistakes as pressure mounts on him. You see him cringe a little at the selection related questions. I don’t present myself as a competent political analyst, that’s not my forte. But the number of months between now and the election is, to use a cliché, a lifetime in politics. I’d rather have Biden’s political position than Trump’s right now.
And the climate impacts, if you’re wrong?
If Trump were elected, I think the favorable trends in renewable energy, battery storage, electric vehicles, green hydrogen, circular manufacturing, regenerative agriculture, sustainable forestry, would continue to move in the right direction. However, the momentum from what they are doing now will not get us where we need to be.
We need skilled and decisive leadership from the White House in the United States in order to accelerate progress. The crisis continues to worsen faster than we implement the solutions. If we gain more momentum, we will start to profit from the crisis itself.
We’re here at your Climate Reality conference, which educates people around the world to push for climate solutions in their communities.
At this point, there are 3.5 million members worldwide.
Beyond the David and Goliath story, given the huge profits made by the fossil fuel industry, is there a mismatch between corporations and climate activists?
We don’t just have one David, we have 3,000 Davids here in this training. And there are millions around the world. If you look at all the groups that are doing this work, it’s the largest grassroots movement in the entire history of the world, and it’s still building.
I draw an analogy between this movement and abolitionists, women’s suffrage, civil rights, etc. With all these movements, when the central issue has really crystallized as a choice between what is clearly right and just, and what is clearly unjust and wrong and deadly and dangerous, then the outcome is foreordained.
I bet humanity. I believe that despite the known limitations we all have, and our vulnerabilities to pettiness and greed, and all the things that can go wrong, we also really and truly have the ability to transcend those limitations, as we’ve proven in past ages. We are capable of this. And the ability of special interests, in this case polluting fossil fuels, to dominate laws and policies is about to end.
