Trump returns: The Reengineer Monitor #10

Danish heat networks, e-diggers, Belfast harbour - and more!

Photo by Aaron Kittredge.

Before we kick off, In case you missed it, a recent article from The Reengineer made an appearance in the Guardian newspaper! My story about electricity-generating waterwheels was syndicated both online and in print.

SPECIAL: The first days of Trump’s second term

Much ink has already been spilled over the dozens of executive orders signed by President Trump in recent days, following his inauguration on Monday.

Jael Holzman at Heatmap has reported on the threat Trump poses to the US wind energy industry. All new wind energy permits are to be banned, according to one of the president’s executive orders. This could affect more than half of all new US wind projects, both onshore and offshore, Holzman reports. However, Trump could face significant legal hurdles here, according to a report from E&E News by Politico.

As was widely expected, the returning president has repeated a manoeuvre from his first term in withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement on climate action. One climate researcher brushed off the move, writing, “The rest of the world can get on with the job.”

In response to Trump’s move, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York City, says he will step in to help fund the United Nations’ climate change body.

Elsewhere, there are worries that Trump’s stance on climate change will, ultimately, slow down global progress, especially in terms of reducing emissions and tackling the effects of extreme weather and climate-exacerbated disasters. The Guardian discussed the president’s response to the recent Los Angeles wildfires, with sources expressing anxiety that dealing with future such events could become much harder under Trump.

France’s former Climate Change Ambassador Émilie Laurence Tubiana, who served as Special Representative for the 2015 Cop21 conference, where the Paris Agreement emerged, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme:

“We should not be frightened by shouting, the declaration of what the president of the United States has decided. There is no more one hegemony, one country leading the world, that’s over. So let’s be courageous and stand up. Because, again, we can’t just ignore. Climate change doesn’t do politics. Global warming doesn’t look at President Trump’s policy. […] Let’s not be derailed, let’s not be distracted. […] It’s a moment of courage.”