Devastating wildfires, flooding and winter storms were among the 23 extreme weather and climate-related disasters in the U.S. that cost more than a billion dollars last year – at an estimated total loss of $115 billion. The past three years have shattered previous records for such events. Scientists earlier this month said that we are closer than ever to the point after which global heating cannot be stopped.

Yet Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin, the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, recently announced the elimination of the Obama-era endangerment finding that underpins federal climate regulations. Scrapping it is just one part of Mr Trump’s assault on environmental controls and promotion of fossil fuels. But it may be his most consequential. Any fragment of hope may lie in the fact a president who has called global heating a “hoax” framed this primarily as about deregulation – perhaps because the science is now so widely accepted even in the U.S.

The administration claimed, without evidence, that Americans would save $1.3 trillion. Never mind insurance or health care costs; a recent report found that U.S. earnings would be 12% higher without the climate crisis. Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse called the decision “corruption, plain and simple.” In 2024, Mr. Trump reportedly urged 20 fossil fuel tycoons to stump up $1 billion for his presidential campaign – while vowing to remove controls on the industry.

In the same week as this reckless and destructive U.S. decision, it emerged that China had recorded its 21st month of flat or slightly falling carbon emissions. As Washington tears up environmental regulations, Beijing is extending carbon reporting requirements. China remains the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, though its per capita and cumulative historical emissions are still far behind those of the U.S. But clean energy drove more than 90% of its investment growth last year.

The Carbon Brief website, which published the emissions analysis, says the numbers suggest that the decline in China’s carbon intensity – emissions per unit of GDP – was below the target set in the past five-year plan, making it hard to meet its commitments under the Paris agreement. The shift in emissions may not prove enduring. There is fear that China’s focus may change; the next five-year plan, due in March, will be key. Some subsidies for renewable power have already been withdrawn. The installation of huge quantities of renewable energy infrastructure has been accompanied by a surge in constructing coal-fired power plants, though the hope is that these are intended primarily as a fallback.

There are other grave concerns, including evidence of the use of forced labour of Uyghur Muslims in solar-panel production in Xinjiang. China’s chokehold on critical minerals hampers the ability of others to develop their own technology. And while its cheap renewables technology has resulted in the cheapest electricity in history, it has also hit manufacturers in other countries.

No one can compensate for the grim reversal of belated U.S. action on emissions. There is also a vacuum in climate diplomacy that China shows no signs of filling. But Beijing has a vested interest in encouraging others to cut emissions, even if some nations now want to challenge its “green mercantilism.” In contrast, U.S. billionaires look forward to prospering at the cost of wallets and lives — not only at home, but around the world.

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ONLINE: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/15/the-guardian-view-on-donald-trump-and-the-climate-crisis-the-us-is-in-reverse-while-china-ploughs-ahead