Actress and singer Antonique Smith sings “Here Comes the Sun” at Sun Day in New York City on Sept. 21, 2025 one of the events organized as part of the annual Climate Week on Sept. 21, 2025.
In August 2025, warmer than normal temperatures were prevalent across Canada, parts of Antarctica, the North Pacific and the Arctic, among others, Berkeley Earth reported on Sept. 23, 2025.
Although temperatures have cooled over the past few minutes from their previous highs, the 12-month global average temperature remains above the long-term trend line, Berkeley Earth announced Sept. 23. Short-term variability is "an inherent part of the weather and climate and is to be expected even alongside perisistent long-term global warming."

On the day before a United Nation’s summit on climate change, President Donald Trump delivered wide-ranging remarks to the UN General Assembly on Sept. 23 that included calling climate science and renewable energy initiatives a “con job” and a “green scam.”

Despite decades of evidence gathered by the federal government and the world’s leading climate scientists about the negative impacts of extreme rainfall, drought and rising sea levels as a result of the warming climate, the president doubled down on his previous efforts to downplay climate change concerns and criticized much of Europe for its renewable energy efforts.

The President referred to inaccurate information about global cooling theories in the early 20th century and cast doubt on global warming and climate change. "It's the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion."

Climate scientists and environmental organizations responded immediately to the president’s remarks, citing his long history of calling climate science a “hoax,” even as temperatures in the world’s oceans and across the United States have periodically soared to record highs. The warming temperatures have been linked to greater rain in hurricanes, longer droughts and more extreme rainfall events around the globe.

"President Trump and his administration continue to spew lies and disinformation about climate science and the overwhelming benefits of clean energy, a grave disservice to the American people,” said Rachel Cleetus, senior policy director for the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Climate change is here, it's costly, and people need real solutions, not propaganda designed to boost the profits of fossil fuel polluters.”

The president's remarks coincided with Climate Week where businesses, world officials, scientists and non-profit organizations have gathered in New York to discuss climate change efforts in conjunction with general assembly meetings. A U.N. Climate Summit takes place on Wednesday, Sept. 24, and also this week China is expected to present its latest targeted goals for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.

For more than a century, scientists have documented how rising fossil fuel emissions increase heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, upsetting the natural balance and warming the planet.

Woldwide, global greenhouse gas emissions increased by 51% between 1990 to 2021, according to the World Resources Institute. The bulk of those emissions come from energy production, so governments around the world, including the U.S., have set goals to increase their use of wind and solar to help reduce emissions and forestall the worst impacts of climate change.

Greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy

To the U.N., Trump touted his executive orders that have "unleashed massive energy production," and chided Europe for reducing its own carbon footprint by 37%.

"For all of that sacrifice and much more, it's been totally wiped out and then some by a global increase of 54%, much of it coming from China," he said. He correctly asserted that China's global carbon dioxide emissions from combustible fuels account for much of the world's current emissions. In 2022, the country's emissions accounted for 31.1% of energy related emissions, the International Energy Association reported.

"All green is all bankrupt," President Trump told the general assembly, lauding Germany for going "back to where they were" with fossil fuel and nuclear.

"I've been right about everything," Trump told the gathered leaders and officials. "And I'm telling you that if you don't get away from the green energy scam, your country is going to fail."

However, Reuters recently reported that Europe's manufacturing activity expanded in August for the first time since mid-2022, due to a surge in domestic demand and output, raising optimism around future production.

While China's cumulative greenhouse gas emissions have overtaken those of 27 member states of the European Union, Cleetus said they remain far behind the cumulative emissions from the U.S. Developed nations long made the biggest contributions to greenhouse gas emissions with the U.S. far ahead of others, according to Carbon Brief. Cleetus noted the President also failed to point out that China's emissions soared in part because of its rising exports to consumers in the U.S. and Europe.

The president also didn't point out China has begun reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, as it surges forward in renewable energy development and production. The country is installing wind and solar projects faster than any other nation and today has almost half the world’s wind farms, USA TODAY previously reported. China's carbon dioxide emissions from its power sector fell by almost 3% during the first half of this year as its growth in solar power matched the rise in electricity demand.

In 2023, China built out more wind and solar than the rest of the world combined. In July 2025, the country made up 74% of all wind and solar projects under construction globally. In May, China's solar power capacity reached 1,000 gigawatts. The current solar capacity in the U.S. is 134 gigawatts.

Although China has previously disappointed some member nations of the U.N. with its underwhelming targets on greenhouse gas reductions, it has overachieved on reaching its emissions targets, so the interest is high in hearing what China may announce this week, Cleetus said. A recent analysis from Carbon Brief showed the country's record solar capacity additions could put China on target to reduce its emissions overall across 2025, and some analysts say the its greenhouse gas emissions may have reached their peak.

The federal government's changing stance on climate change

Federal scientists have warned about the negative impacts of climate change since at least 1974. For decades, the U.S. military has documented concerns about the increasing effects of sea level rise on military installations and the challenges to protecting national security amidst thinning sea ice in the Arctic.

The President cited some of the more dire climate predictions from decades ago, pointing out they haven’t yet proven true. Some of the president's remarks echo assertions put forward by the Heritage Foundation and some fossil fuel-supported organizations that have worked to counter climate change action.

The President did not mention the Indigenous U.S. communities or Pacific Island nations that are engaged in relocation efforts, including the island nation of Tuvalu, which has reached an agreement with Australia to begin slowly relocating its citizens there as refugees from the rising sea levels. In Alaska, Oregon and other locations in the U.S, the federal government has been assisting with developing plans to relocate or protect the villages of several Tribal communities and Alaskan villages. In early January 2025, the Bureau of Land Management website explained the communities are in an area that climate change is rendering uninhabitable, mentioning climate eight times. That explanation has since been changed to one climate reference.

During his first eight months in office, the administration has overseen a number of controversial steps to downplay the impacts on climate change, including the removal of references to climate change from some federal websites, ending the Climate.gov website, and putting the next installment of the National Climate Assessment on hold. The U.S. also withdrew from participating in the U.N.'s next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Hours after the president's speech, Berkeley Earth released its global climate summary for August, saying it was the third warmest August on record since instrumental records began in 1850, and that 2025 has a 95.2% chance of being the third warmest year on record.

Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, covers climate change, weather and other news. Reach her at dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump pans climate change, touts his energy agenda in UN speech

Reporting by Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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