Speaking to world leaders this week, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that climate change wasn't real, that green energies were bad investments, and that high-electricity bills in Europe were leading to heat deaths. The statements were false or misleading.

Here are the facts: Since the 19th century, scientists have known that the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere raises global temperatures. The temperature increase alters normal weather variations, making extreme events like flooding and heat waves more likely and intense.

“This ‘climate change,’ it’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion," Trump said.

Trump has long been a critic of climate science and polices aimed at helping the world transition to green energies like wind and solar.

His speech last Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly, however, was one of his most expansive to date. It included false statements and making connections between things that are not connected.

Trump called renewable sources of energy like wind power a “joke” and “pathetic,” falsely claiming they don’t work, are too expensive and too weak.

Solar and wind are now “almost always” the least expensive and the fastest options for new electricity generation, according to a July report from the United Nations.

That report also said the world has passed a “positive tipping point” where those energy sources will only continue to become more widespread.

The three cheapest electricity sources globally last year were onshore wind, solar panels and new hydropower, according to an energy cost report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Subsidies endorsed by Trump and the Republican party are artificially keeping fossil fuels viable, said University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann.

Relatedly, Trump falsely claimed European electricity bills are now “two to three times higher than the United States, and our bills are coming way down.”

But in fact retail electricity prices in the United States have increased faster than the rate of inflation since 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The agency expects prices to continue increasing through 2026.

Trump blamed heat deaths in Europe on high energy costs.

"Europe loses more than 175,000 people to heat deaths each year because the costs are so expensive you can't turn on an air conditioner," Trump said.

But Trump didn't mention that Europe is warming faster than any other part of the world. That means summers are particularly warm. Many cities were not built for today's heat and many homes don't have air conditioners.

AP Video produced by Teresa de Miguel

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