Aldy says Trump efforts to reverse Obama policies "temporary aberration"
A new report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), a top government watchdog, says the yearly cost of climate change to the federal government is tens of billions of dollars and rising rapidly — yet US President Donald Trump still refuses to acknowledge basic science.
The growing frequency and intensity of extreme climate events like hurricanes and wildfires, which many scientists have tied to a warming planet, are raising worries that the administration’s inaction could lead to irreversible damage.
However, as alarmed as climate experts remain about the speed at which oceans are warming and weather patterns shifting, public policy professor Joseph Aldy at Harvard's Kennedy School says there's reason to remain, if not optimistic, at least guardedly upbeat about the limits of what the Trump administration can do to reverse recent progress.
"The Trump Administration’s efforts to reverse the Obama Administration's [policies] represents a temporary aberration,” Aldy, whose research focuses on climate change, told Business Insider.
Recent strides have resulted from a mix of sound government policy and, in part, a result of innovation and market forces in the US energy industry, Aldy said.
"The economics of energy in the United States have transformed dramatically over the past decade," he said.
