In the wake of a catastrophic US election, in which the climate emergency barely registered, the immediate question on many minds is what a second Trump presidency will mean for the climate fight in this country.

But with the 29th annual United Nations climate conference, COP29, underway in Baku, Azerbaijan, this is an excellent moment to remember that the climate crisis is in fact a global crisis—which can be addressed only at the global level. And despite the modicum of progress under Joe Biden and the stunning acceleration of ever-cheaper renewable energy at home and abroad, the news on the global front has been, shall we say, discouraging. Fossil fuel extraction and consumption continues to expand globally. The 2024 Emissions Gap Report from the United Nations Environment Program spells out the world’s failure, after 30 years of international negotiations, to bend the global emissions curve downward at all; CO2 emissions are still at record levels (with revi...