Words to avoid: ‘Climate change’, ‘decarbonisation’ and even ‘green’. According to a report by Zack Colman in an article for Politico about a year ago, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy within the US Department of Energy issued this internal directive after Donald Trump returned to the White House. This directive reflected the administration’s line: downplay, deny and obscure the impact of fossil fuels on climate change, dismiss scientific evidence as myths, and reduce scientific warnings – which link more frequent and more intense natural phenomena, increasingly extreme and devastating – to bar-room chatter.
This policy of disinformation and concrete decisions sustains the unsustainable development model the White House currently champions. Plastic – most of which is made from fossil fuels – and the pollution it causes in the oceans, as well as the difficulties in disposing of and reusing it, are plain for all to see. Between 400 and 450 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year, of which less than 10 per cent is recycled. The Global Plastics Treaty looked imminent, but now it’s stalled and nowhere to be seen, as the US, along with other fossil fuel-producing states, opposed anything that could involve cuts to plastic production.
One of the most perverse aspects of climate change is that cause and effect are not meritocratic; those responsible for the problem do not bear the consequences, which often fall mainly on those entirely blameless.
According to an analysis by NASA’s sea level change science team, over the next three decades, Pacific Island nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati and Fiji will experience a sea-level rise of at least 15 centimetres. They will also face high-tide flooding by the 2050s. Yet there is no correlation between the behaviour of the inhabitants of those islands and climate change, and they will pay the highest price.
Some are already paying that price and, likewise, are in no way to blame. Take Nepalese people, for example: the Nepal floods of August 2026, a catastrophic flash flood and debris flow triggered by the partial collapse of the glacier atop Langtang Lirung peak in Langtang National Park. In the weeks that followed, further torrential rain continued to devastate the area and claim lives, with the death toll continuing to rise – although it is likely to be an underestimate given the impossibility of reaching all the devastated areas – but there is already talk of at least 1,400 people dead and nearly 6,000 missing.
All this took place over a month and a half in Nepal alone. It is precisely these countries – those least responsible for rising temperatures, caused by the main CO₂ emitters such as the US, China, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Germany – that are suffering the greatest damage in this chain of events: pollution – CO₂ emissions – rising temperatures – melting glaciers – devastation – deaths.
This perverse and unjust correlation has, at least, been recognised by the most developed countries, which is why the UN Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage was established during COP27, dedicated to helping low-income, climate-vulnerable nations and communities recover from climate change-related ‘unnatural’ disasters. However, the US Administration withdrew its delegation and reneged on its commitments to finance the fund.
Responsibility? Conscience? Guilt? Not at all. No directive was needed to ban them.
Gianni Serra
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By: ONE Editor
Italian professional journalist. ONE Editor in Chief and Sotacarbo Director of Communications and International Relations.
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