By Austin Gae, The Daily Signal | December 30, 2024
President Joe Biden is backing a global effort with other wealthy nations to restrict government funding for oil and gas projects abroad. But instead of pushing other countries to transition away from fossil fuels—a key driver of economic growth around the world—America in 2025 should champion energy abundance to uplift all economies, especially low-income ones. This vision, espoused by President-elect Donald Trump, will help developed countries and emerging economies alike.
Unfortunately, this vision of promoting energy abundance was not present in the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP29, in Azerbaijan. The summit’s misguided goal was to pressure developed countries to pledge up to $1 trillion annually to help emerging economies adapt to supposedly severe climate change effects and develop their own renewable energy projects. Richer countries reluctantly agreed to provide $300 billion annually by 2035, a third of the initial demand—but three times as much as the current level of $100 billion a year.
Not only will this promise strain the finances of developed nations, but it will also harm the supposed beneficiaries. Although financial support might seem valuable, these funds are intended to replace emerging economies’ reliance on fossil fuels, a critical driver of their economic growth. In 2025, they need to use their natural resources, because leaving them in the ground and depending instead on much less reliable and less abundant renewable energy sources will significantly hinder their ability to industrialize.
History offers an important reminder of why using natural resources is crucial to a nation’s development. Britain’s Industrial Revolution was possible because of coal, which served as the primary energy source that drove its unprecedented economic and technological advancements. Between 1700 and the mid-1850s, energy consumption from coal surged twentyfold. This dramatic increase led to economic growth that eventually gave its people a better standard of living.
Despite what history reveals, developed nations continue to urge emerging economies to transition away from fossil fuels. This pressure stems from the misguided belief that carbon dioxide is a key driver of catastrophic climate change effects.
Some politicians and media outlets claim that carbon emissions have increased hurricane frequency and intensity. But a Heritage Foundation report, written by meteorologist Joe D’Aleo and Heritage’s chief statistician, Kevin Dayaratna, finds no long-term trend in the frequency of major U.S. hurricane landfalls over the past two centuries, despite rising emissions. Additionally, analyses of central pressure and wind speeds show no signs that hurricanes are intensifying.
Other claims, such as linking emissions to tornadoes, are disproved by the decline in strong tornadoes from 1950 (the start of high-quality tornado data collection in the U.S.) to 2020. Additionally, credible evidence challenges climate alarmist predictions about sea level rise and also suggests that slight warming could be beneficial, as cold-related deaths outnumber heat-related deaths.
It is crucial that in 2025, developing countries be encouraged to utilize coal, natural gas, and oil to provide low-cost, reliable energy for billions of people, which helps lift them out of poverty. With 44% of the global population living on less than $6.85 a day, fossil fuels will continue to play a crucial role in bringing people out of poverty—top on the list of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.
While climate summits like COP29 treat climate change as the world’s biggest problem, a U.N. global survey of 9.7 million people ranked “action taken on climate change” as the lowest of 16 priorities. Instead, respondents placed the highest importance on high-quality education, better health care, and improved job opportunities.
Trump has the opportunity to promote a people-first agenda by unleashing American energy. At the 2025 U.N. climate summit in Brazil, the world must acknowledge the reality that fossil fuels are the only way to achieve the U.N.’s top sustainable development goals. Rather than chasing the costly and currently impossible agenda of trying to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero, leaders should unite behind the more important goal of ending poverty and promoting economic prosperity.
Austin Gae is a research associate in the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at The Heritage Foundation.
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