Former Vice President Al Gore was in New York City over the weekend for a leadership exercise convened by the Climate Reality Project, his nonprofit organization.
On Saturday, before thousands of attendees, Mr. Gore highlighted rising climate risks but also talked about progress. He criticized fossil fuel companies for increasing the production of plastics and advancing technology to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which he called “utterly preposterous.”
Afterward, Mr. Gore explained in an interview why he was not surprised that major oil and gas companies reneged on their promises to decarbonize. And he said he believes former President Donald J. Trump will lose his campaign to return to the White House. Here are excerpts from that conversation, edited and shortened for clarity.
Oil and gas companies recently gathered in Houston for the industry’s annual conference. Many of the major companies have gone back on their promises to decarbonize. In Houston, the head of Saudi Aramco said that the “fantasy of phasing out oil and gas” should be discarded.
I don’t think their promises were honest at first. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there was such a pinch in Europe’s access to fossil fuels that translated into a crunch in demand elsewhere in the world. There was a sudden surge to try to replace Russian supplies. That had a global impact on the price of fossil fuels, and on the profits of large companies.
As they tasted these higher returns, they came under pressure from their investors to capitalize while the going got good. So they just decided en masse to renege on their promises and just move on, without regard for what they pretended to be doing in the past. I think it’s always a scam. It remains to be seen if they are going to go back on their promises without incurring significant damage to politics and the business community.
What does this mean for the need to stop burning fossil fuels, which scientists say is necessary?
We need to change laws and policies. We should stop subsidizing. We need to put a tax on carbon, because we already put a tax on methane. So-called carbon border adjustment mechanisms that are rising elsewhere in the world offer a path to do just that.
Former President Donald J. Trump has made it clear that he will repeal President Biden’s climate policies and promote fossil fuels. If he wins in November, what will it mean for the fight against global warming?
First of all, I refuse to accept the hypothetical. Trump is not going away. I didn’t think he would win.
Why?
I think the long political tail of inflation will weaken in November. I think the increasing strength of the American economy and job market will continue to provide benefits to President Biden. Trump is vulnerable to making more mistakes as the pressure on him mounts. You can see him flailing a bit on the selection-related questions. I don’t portray myself as a skilled political analyst, that’s not my forte. But the number of months between now and the election is, to use a cliché, a lifetime in politics. I’d rather have Biden’s political position now than Trump’s.
And the climate impact, if you’re wrong?
If Trump is elected, I think the favorable trends in renewable energy, battery storage, electric vehicles, green hydrogen, circular manufacturing, regenerative agriculture, sustainable forestry, will all continue in the right direction. However, the momentum from what they are doing now will not get us where we need to be.
We need skilled and determined leadership from the White House in the United States to accelerate progress. The crisis is still worsening faster than we are deploying solutions. If we have more momentum, we will start to get out of the crisis itself.
We’re here at your Climate Reality conference, training people around the world to drive climate solutions in their communities.
At this point, it is 3.5 million members worldwide.
David and Goliath story aside, given the huge profits realized by the fossil fuel industry, is there a mismatch between companies and climate activists?
We don’t just have one David, we have 3,000 Davids here in this training. And there are millions all over the world. If you look at all the groups that are doing this work, it’s the largest grass-roots movement in the history of the world, and it’s still building.
I draw parallels between this movement and abolitionists, women’s suffrage, civil rights, etc. In all that movement, when the central issue was really crystallized as a choice between what was clearly right and just, and what was clearly unjust and wrong and deadly and dangerous, then the outcome will be foreordained.
I bet on humanity. I believe that despite the known limitations that we all have, and our vulnerabilities to lasciviousness and greed, and all the things that can go wrong, we also have a real and true capacity to go beyond those limits, as shown let’s in recent times. We can do this. And the ability of special interests, in this case, fossil fuel polluters, to dominate laws and policies, will end.
