Political shifts will not slow green economy momentum

Political shifts will not slow green economy momentum

Political shifts will not slow green economy momentum
Significant investments in renewable energy are shaping the green economy worldwide. (Shutterstock)
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The relationship between climate policy and economic priorities continues to shape the future of sustainability in a world striving to address global warming.

Recent major global political shifts will alter climate policies and affect actions undertaken by governments, but they won’t stop the long-term momentum of the green economy juggernaut.

It is, however, essential to understand how these changes in policy will impact sustainable development and international climate initiatives.

In recent years, climate policy has taken various approaches to balance traditional energy sectors with renewable energy investments.

Policy shifts like those expected from the next Donald Trump administration could expand fossil fuel extraction and reduce support for renewables for short-term gains.

This could dampen investments in clean energy and complicate progress toward national and international climate goals. 

A sharp and most likely short term change in policy like this highlights the need for resilient strategies to maintain forward momentum in renewable energy adoption and sustainable practices.

In the US, changes to climate policies could initially cause delays or even the suspension of renewable energy projects, accompanied by a shift in focus toward fossil fuels.

Moreover, subsidies and incentives for the green sector might be redirected, delaying critical advancements in the green economy. Increased reliance on fossil fuels could hinder emissions reduction goals and the economic case for transitioning to renewables.

The hope for a thriving green economy may face challenges during periods of economic uncertainty, particularly for companies dependent on government funding for green projects.

Any reduction in government support could erode investor confidence, slowing the progress of renewable energy initiatives.

However, major liberal American states like California, along with the private sector, are likely to continue developing sustainable practices regardless of changes at federal level.

This distinction between federal challenges and state-led or market-driven green investments highlights the multifaceted nature of climate action in a large country like the US.

On the international stage, changes to key climate policies can create a ripple effect.

The future of the green economy hinges on managing energy transitions effectively, balancing short-term economic considerations with long-term environmental imperatives.

Majed Al-Qatari

For instance, the EU, with its ambitious Green Deal initiative and emissions trading schemes, remains committed to producing net-zero greenhouse gases by 2050. It has invested heavily in renewable energy sources and sustainable development frameworks, underscoring the importance of long-term climate goals. 

Any shifts away from clean energy by Europe’s global partners could create new dynamics in trade and climate cooperation. However, Europe’s resolve to lead in sustainability initiatives ensures that progress will continue — with or without alignment with the US.

In the Middle East, nations like Saudi Arabia have shown leadership in green initiatives through frameworks such as Vision 2030 and the Saudi Green Initiative.

These programs leverage the region’s high solar energy potential to achieve broader green economy objectives. And while international collaboration amplifies these efforts, regional leaders remain determined to advance sustainable development as part of economic diversification away from fossil fuels and to ensure climate resilience.

Although climate change policy is shaped within national contexts, it requires a global perspective and collaborative effort to bring about the changes required to slow global warming. Technological innovation and international partnerships remain essential in driving sustainability.

Participation in frameworks like the Paris Agreement highlights the need for unified action to address a challenge that transcends borders and political cycles.

Globally, significant investments in renewable energy are shaping the green economy.

Emerging markets in Europe, Asia and the Middle East are establishing themselves as leaders in clean-energy technologies, creating competition as well as collaboration opportunities.

These developments emphasize the resilience of the green economy, which continues to evolve despite external challenges. And as environmental and economic interests become more interconnected, aligning policies with sustainability goals becomes increasingly crucial.

The future of the green economy hinges on managing energy transitions effectively, balancing short-term economic considerations with long-term environmental imperatives.

Despite potential challenges, the drive for innovation and international cooperation ensures that the green economy remains a central force for global progress. 

As nations and industries align their interests with sustainability, the world moves closer to addressing one of humanity’s most urgent challenges.

Majed Al-Qatari is a sustainability leader, ecological engineer and UN Youth Ambassador with experience in ESG and sustainability goals in business, nonprofits and financial institutions.

 

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point of view

Trump’s portrait to be taken down at Colorado Capitol after president claimed it was ‘distorted’

Trump’s portrait to be taken down at Colorado Capitol after president claimed it was ‘distorted’
Updated 9 min 39 sec ago
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Trump’s portrait to be taken down at Colorado Capitol after president claimed it was ‘distorted’

Trump’s portrait to be taken down at Colorado Capitol after president claimed it was ‘distorted’
  • Trump’s Sunday night comments had prompted a steady stream of visitors to pose for photos with the painting before the announcement that it would be taken down

DENVER: A painting of Donald Trump hanging with other presidential portraits at the Colorado state Capitol will be taken down after Trump claimed that his was “purposefully distorted,” according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
House Democrats said in a statement that the oil painting would be taken down at the request of Republican leaders in the Legislature. Colorado Republicans raised more than $10,000 through a GoFundMe account to commission the oil painting, which was unveiled in 2019.
Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Republican, said that he requested for Trump’s portrait to be taken down and replaced by one “that depicts his contemporary likeness.”
“If the GOP wants to spend time and money on which portrait of Trump hangs in the Capitol, then that’s up to them,” the Democrats said.
The portrait was installed alongside other paintings of US presidents. Before the installation, a prankster placed a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin near the spot intended for Trump.
Initially, people objected to artist Sarah Boardman’s depiction of Trump as “nonconfrontational” and “thoughtful” in the portrait, according to an interview with Colorado Times Recorder from the time.
But in a Sunday night post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he would prefer no picture at all over the one that hangs in the Colorado Capitol. The Republican lauded a nearby portrait of former President Barack Obama – also by Boardman – saying “he looks wonderful.”
“Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the state Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before,” Trump wrote.
The portraits are not the purview of the Colorado governor’s office but the Colorado Building Advisory Committee. The ones up to and including President Jimmy Carter were donated as a collection. The others were donated by political parties or, more recently, paid for by outside fundraising.
The Legislature’s executive committee, made up of both Democratic and Republican leadership, signed a letter directing the removal of Trump’s portrait. Lundeen, the Republican senator who requested it, noted that Grover Cleveland, whose presidential terms were separated like Trump’s, had a portrait from his second term.
Boardman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. In interviews from the time with The Denver Post, Boardman said it was important that her depictions of both Obama and Trump looked apolitical.
“There will always be dissent, so pleasing one group will always inflame another. I consider a neutrally thoughtful, and nonconfrontational, portrait allows everyone to reach their own conclusions in their own time,” Boardman told the Colorado Times Recorder in 2019.
Trump’s Sunday night comments had prompted a steady stream of visitors to pose for photos with the painting before the announcement that it would be taken down.
Aaron Howe, visiting from Wyoming on Monday, stood in front of Trump’s portrait, looking down at photos of the president on his phone, then back up at the portrait.
“Honestly he looks a little chubby,” said Howe of the portrait, but “better than I could do.”
“I don’t know anything about the artist,” said Howe, who voted for Trump. “It could be taken one way or the other.”
Kaylee Williamson, an 18-year-old Trump supporter from Arkansas, got a photo with the portrait.
“I think it looks like him. I guess he’s smoother than all the other ones,” she said. “I think it’s fine.”


One killed in southern Lebanon by Israeli strike: state media

One killed in southern Lebanon by Israeli strike: state media
Updated 21 min 49 sec ago
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One killed in southern Lebanon by Israeli strike: state media

One killed in southern Lebanon by Israeli strike: state media

BEIRUT, Lebanon: One person was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon late Monday, after a wave of intensive air attacks in the region over the weekend, state media reported.
“A raid by an enemy Israeli drone on a vehicle in the area of Qaqaiyat Al-Jisr left one dead,” the National News Agency (ANI) said, attributing the toll to the Lebanese health ministry.
Israel launched air strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, killing eight people, in response to rocket fire that hit its territory for the first time since a ceasefire took effect on November 27.
No party has claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, which a military source said was launched from an area north of the Litani River, between the villages of Kfar Tebnit and Arnoun, near the zone covered by the ceasefire agreement.
The agreement stipulates that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers may be deployed south of the Litani River, with Hezbollah required to dismantle its infrastructure and withdraw north of the river.
But the war has severely weakened Hezbollah, which remains a target of Israeli air strikes despite the ceasefire.
Over the weekend Lebanese officials held discussions with Washington and Paris to prevent Israel from bombing Beirut, a source told AFP on Monday on condition of anonymity.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that following rocket fire on Metula, a town in northern Israel, “Metula’s fate is the same as Beirut’s.”


Palestinian children denied access to quality education by Israeli violence and repression

Palestinian children denied access to quality education by Israeli violence and repression
Updated 43 min 25 sec ago
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Palestinian children denied access to quality education by Israeli violence and repression

Palestinian children denied access to quality education by Israeli violence and repression

BEIRUT: A lost generation of Palestinian children is being denied an education by Israeli violence and repression, experts said on Monday.

In the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem, constant fighting has paralyzed movement and more than 800,000 young people had their access to school restricted in 2024, according to a new report by the Occupied Palestinian Territory Education Cluster, which includes UN agencies.

In Gaza, where almost every school has been reduced to rubble by Israeli bombing, children had just begun to return to classes in bombed-out buildings when Israeli airstrikes resumed on March 18. Nearly half of the 400 people killed that day were children.

“The ability of Palestinian children to access quality education in the West Bank or in Gaza has never been under more stress,” said Alexandra Saieh, global head of humanitarian policy and advocacy at the charity Save the Children.

The Palestinian Ministry of Education recorded more than 2,200 incidents of violence targeting the education system in the West Bank in 2024, according to the new report. These included attacks on schools by armed settlers and the detention of students or teachers by Israeli security forces.

At least 109 schools were attacked or vandalized. More than half of Palestinian students reported being delayed or harassed on their way to school, and many were physically assaulted. Every day, children in the West Bank run the gauntlet of Israeli roadblocks, checkpoints and settler attacks on their way to school.

"Checkpoints are also increasing risks of violence for students, their caregivers and teachers from Israeli forces or from settlers who, in some areas, have taken advantage of the fact that cars are not able to move to damage them and attack passengers,” the report said.

Since January, thousands of Israeli troops have swept through refugee camps and cities and demolished houses and infrastructure, including roads children use to get to school.


’Nazis got better treatment,’ judge says of Trump admin deportations

James Boasberg, chief judge of the US District Court in Washington. (Photo/social media)
James Boasberg, chief judge of the US District Court in Washington. (Photo/social media)
Updated 25 March 2025
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’Nazis got better treatment,’ judge says of Trump admin deportations

James Boasberg, chief judge of the US District Court in Washington. (Photo/social media)
  • “Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act,” said Millett, an appointee of former Democratic president Barack Obama

WASHINGTON: A federal judge on Monday sharply criticized the Trump administration’s summary deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members, saying “Nazis got better treatment” from the United States during World War II.
President Donald Trump sent two planeloads of Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador on March 15 after invoking an obscure wartime law known as the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA).
James Boasberg, chief judge of the US District Court in Washington, issued a restraining order that same day temporarily barring the Trump administration from carrying out any further deportation flights under the AEA.
The Justice Department is seeking to have the order lifted and a three-judge US Court of Appeals panel heard oral arguments in the closely watched case on Monday.
Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign said the judge’s order “represents an unprecedented and enormous intrusion upon the powers of the executive branch” and “enjoins the president’s exercise of his war and foreign affairs powers.”
Judge Patricia Millett appeared unconvinced and said the lower court judge was not disputing Trump’s presidential authority only the denial of individual court hearings to the deportees.
Attorneys for several of the deported Venezuelans have said that their clients were not members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang, had committed no crimes and were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos.
“Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act,” said Millett, an appointee of former Democratic president Barack Obama. “They had hearing boards before people were removed.”
“People on those planes on that Saturday had no opportunity to challenge their removal under the AEA,” she said. “Y’all could have picked me up on Saturday and thrown me on a plane thinking I’m a member of Tren de Aragua and given me no chance to protest it.
“Somehow it’s a violation of presidential war powers for me to say, ‘Excuse me, no, I’m not. I’d like a hearing?’“
Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, also suggested that court hearings were warranted but appeared more receptive to the arguments that the judge’s order impinged on presidential powers.
The third judge on the panel is an appointee of former Republican president George H.W. Bush.
The AEA, which has previously only been used during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II, gives the government vast powers to round up citizens of a “hostile nation” during wartime.

Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed suit against the deportations, told the appeals court panel that the Trump administration was using the AEA “to try and short circuit immigration proceedings.”
The government would likely immediately resume AEA deportations if the temporary restraining order was lifted, Gelernt said.
“We are talking about people being sent to El Salvador, to one of the worst prisons in the world, incommunicado,” he said. “They’re essentially being disappeared.”
In a 37-page opinion issued on Monday, Boasberg, the district court judge, said that migrants subject to potential deportation under the AEA should be “entitled to individualized hearings to determine whether the Act applies to them at all.”
Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Boasberg, even going so far as to call for his impeachment, a remark that drew a rare public rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
The contentious case has raised concerns among legal experts that the Trump administration would potentially ignore the court order, triggering a constitutional crisis.
Ahead of the hearing, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced plans to send three alleged TdA members facing extortion and kidnapping charges to Chile under the AEA.
Blanche said the Justice Department “is taking every step within the bounds of the law to ensure these individuals are promptly sent to Chile to face justice.”
 

 


Trump officials texted war plans to a group chat in a secure app that included a journalist

Trump officials texted war plans to a group chat in a secure app that included a journalist
Updated 10 min 3 sec ago
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Trump officials texted war plans to a group chat in a secure app that included a journalist

Trump officials texted war plans to a group chat in a secure app that included a journalist
  • The material in the text chain “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi-rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing”
  • Government officials have used Signal for organizational correspondence, but it is not classified and can be hacked

WASHINGTON: Top national security officials for President Donald Trump, including his defense secretary, texted war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, the magazine reported in a story posted online Monday. The National Security Council said the text chain “appears to be authentic.”
Trump told reporters he was not aware that the sensitive information had been shared, 2 1/2 hours after it was reported.
The material in the text chain “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi-rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing,” editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported.
It was not immediately clear if the specifics of the military operation were classified, but they often are and at the least are kept secure to protect service members and operational security. The US has conducted airstrikes against the Houthis since the militant group began targeting commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea in November 2023.
Just two hours after Goldberg received the details of the attack on March 15, the US began launching a series of airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.
The National Security Council is looking into the matter
The National Security Council said in a statement that it was looking into how a journalist’s number was added to the chain in the Signal group chat.
Trump told reporters, “I don’t know anything about it. You’re telling me about it for the first time.” He added that The Atlantic was “not much of a magazine.”
Government officials have used Signal for organizational correspondence, but it is not classified and can be hacked. Privacy and tech experts say the popular end-to-end encrypted messaging and voice call app is more secure than conventional texting.
The sharing of sensitive information comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office has just announced a crackdown on leaks of sensitive information, including the potential use of polygraphs on defense personnel to determine how reporters have received information.
Sean Parnell, a spokesman for Hegseth, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on why the defense secretary posted war operational plans on an unclassified app.
The breach in protocol was swiftly condemned by Democratic lawmakers. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called for a full investigation.
“This is one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a floor speech Monday afternoon.
“If true, this story represents one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen,” said Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a statement.
He said American lives are “on the line. The carelessness shown by Trump’s Cabinet is stunning and dangerous. I will be seeking answers from the Administration immediately.”
Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that he was “horrified” by the reports.
Himes said if a lower-ranking official “did what is described here, they would likely lose their clearance and be subject to criminal investigation. The American people deserve answers,” which he said he planned to get at Wednesday’s previously scheduled committee hearing.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he wants to learn more about what happened.
“Obviously, we got to to run it to the ground, figure out what went on there,” said Thune, a South Dakota Republican.
There are strict laws around handling defense information
The handling of national defense information is strictly governed by law under the century-old Espionage Act, including provisions that make it a crime to remove such information from its “proper place of custody” even through an act of gross negligence.
The Justice Department in 2015 and 2016 investigated whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton broke the law by communicating about classified information with her aides on a private email server she set up, though the FBI ultimately recommended against charges and none were brought.
In the Biden administration, some officials were given permission to download Signal on their White House-issued phones, but were instructed to use the app sparingly, according to a former national security official who served in the Democratic administration.
The official, who requested anonymity to speak about methods used to share sensitive information, said Signal was most commonly used to communicate what they internally referred to as “tippers” to notify someone when they were away from the office or traveling overseas that they should check their “high side” inbox for a classified message.
The app was sometimes also used by officials during the Biden administration to communicate about scheduling of sensitive meetings or classified phone calls when they were outside the office, the official said.
The use of Signal became more prevalent during the last year of the Biden administration after federal law enforcement officials warned that China and Iran were hacking the White House as well as officials in the first Trump administration, according to the official.
The official was unaware of top Biden administration officials — such as Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and national security adviser Jake Sullivan — using Signal to discuss sensitive plans as the Trump administration officials did.
Some of the toughest criticism targeted Hegseth, a former Fox News Channel weekend host. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, said on social media that Hegseth, “the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in history, is demonstrating his incompetence by literally leaking classified war plans in the group chat.”