DONALD TRUMP WAS RIGHT, CLIMATE CHANGE IS A CON JOB… JUST NOT THE ONE HE THINKS

Before you hurl the epithets at us, think about this: the heating of the planet is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced, but it is also the biggest opportunity for business-as-usual grifting. Carbon markets, fake finance, extraction in green disguise, net zero pledges without substance, all of it amounts to a massive transfer of responsibility and cost from the Global North to the South. So, when Trump sneered that climate change was a “con job” as he addressed this year’s United Nations General Assembly, he was right. Not in the way he meant, but in the sense that the climate agenda has been hijacked by con men in suits who’ve discovered that you can turn planetary survival into just another racket. 

When Donald Trump declared that climate change was a “con job” as he addressed this year’s edition of the United Nations General Assembly, most people scoffed. Scientists rolled their eyes, activists groaned and rattled on television, and TikTok comedians had a field day around the world. On social media platforms, thousands retweeted short clips of his speech, helping amplify his rant at the assembly. 

But perhaps… and here we have to ask you to bear with us… Trump, in his own blundering way, was onto something. Because if you look past the bluster and his Truth Social misspellings, you are certain to find that climate change has indeed been turned into a con job, only that it’s not in the way the US president projected it. The con is not in the scientific consensus, of course. That part is solid. What’s being scammed is the response, the smoke-and-mirrors show run by the Global North at the expense of the Global South. 

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the climate crisis has become the latest instalment in a centuries-old tradition, and it comes to us in the shape and form of rich nations finding new ways to fleece poorer ones. It’s green-tinged neo-colonialism, for example, the energy transition debate, and newfangled carbon markets.  

Here’s our list of shame from the climate con job to keep you thinking this week: 

Con Job 1: The magical carbon market, a wolf in sheep’s clothing 

Sit up, folks, and watch the world’s wealthiest economies pull off their greatest trick, which is outsourcing responsibility. Carbon markets are now being sold as the rational, market-friendly solution to a warming planet. The idea is simple when you think about it, really. Rich countries keep polluting, but instead of changing anything structurally, they “offset” their emissions by paying poorer countries and communities to preserve forests or build renewables. 

It sounds noble, but only until you read the fine print. These offset projects are often schemes that dispossess local communities, kick indigenous people off their ancestral lands, or, in some cases, protect forests that weren’t in danger to begin with. We have seen this all over the continent, from the small pastoralist communities of the Maasai in Kenya to the farmers of the Congo Basin. The way we see it, and as we have put it in our recent report titled ‘African Carbon Markets Initiative: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’, this sounds more like buying indulgences in medieval Europe, where you pay a little money, keep sinning, and sleep soundly knowing someone else is handling your cosmic debt. 

But in reality it’s the South that gets saddled with the responsibility of maintaining carbon sinks, while the North gets a shiny “Net Zero by 2050” badge.  

Our verdict? Trump was wrong about the science, but it’s true that  this is a scam - a wolf in our midst dressed up as an innocent lamb. 

Con Job 2: The great green technology racket 

Let’s talk about renewables. Rich countries are all about wind turbines and solar panels these days. They love to brag about their green transitions, their electric vehicle fleets, their finest and thinnest micro-chips, and their clean hydrogen projects. But here’s the kicker; where do you think the raw materials for these shiny technologies come from? 

Cobalt, lithium, and other rare earths are all essential for the batteries and gadgets that make the North’s green dreams possible, and they are mined in the South, not in some utopian, solar-powered eco-village, but through child labour in the mines of the Congo, polluted rivers in South America, and land grabs from indigenous people in Asia. The North pats itself on the back for “decarbonising” while outsourcing the dirtiest, most exploitative parts of the supply chain to the South.  

Our verdict? Trump was wrong about the science, but right on this latest chapter in a centuries-long tradition of extraction for Northern progress, destruction for everyone else. 

Con Job 3: Phantom climate finance pledges 

Remember the $100 billion per year that rich countries promised to give the Global South to deal with climate change? Or the trillion-dollar debate on the New Collective Quantified Goal in Baku last year? That money was supposed to help vulnerable nations adapt to rising seas, invest in resilience, get their agriculture right, and transition to greener economies. 

But we were all conned because it never really arrived; and the little that has trickled in is not in the form that was promised. All we have now are loans, so poor nations end up even more indebted; or funds tied to specific contracts with Western companies, so the money just boomerangs right back.  

Meanwhile, many countries in Africa and the Global South are drowning, sometimes literally, under the weight of climate disasters they didn’t cause. Look at Zambia and its debt crisis, for instane. Or Bangladesh and the rising waters swallowing up Chittagong. These poor account for the smallest share of historical emissions, yet they’re forced to take out expensive International Monetary Fund loans to rebuild after hurricanes, only to repay them with sky-high interest.  

Our verdict? Trump was wrong about the science, but right on this sort of scam that, in the climate world, has become business as usual. 

Con Job 4: Net Zero by Never 

If you follow climate change discourse, you will perhaps agree that “Net zero” has become the phrase du jour in international conferences. Every country or company wants to announce its shiny new target, usually timed for the distant future when current leaders will be retired, dead, or collecting speaking fees. It’s the political equivalent of promising to quit smoking by 2070.  

The North loves this idea of net zero because it allows them to make grand pledges while continuing business as usual. Fossil fuels? Still expanding, and you don’t need to look further than East Africa, where the French-backed Total Energies is expanding its empire through a pipeline that is tearing through communities from the forests of Uganda to the shores of Tanzania. Military emissions? Not counted, not even when the world in engulfed in armed conflicts on every continent. Consumption footprints? Swept under the rug, even as consumerism sweeps through the West.  

Our verdict? Trump was wrong on the science, but right on the Global North’s net zero ambitions, which in practice mean “we’ll keep burning, you stop developing.” A con job wrapped in a lofty PowerPoint presentation. 

Con Job 5: Disaster tourism (or poorism) and the charity circus 

Whenever there’s a climate disaster in the South, like floods in Pakistan, cyclones in Mozambique, wildfires in the Amazon, drought in the Sahel, mudslides in Kenya, or floods in Nigeria, the North responds with photo ops and charity drives. Celebrities fly in on private jets to pose in front of ruined villages, pledging solidarity. Aid agencies raise money with pictures of desolate children wading through floodwaters. 

But solidarity doesn’t pay for reconstruction. And charity is no substitute for justice. These photo-friendly moments perpetuate the idea that the South is a perpetual victim needing Northern benevolence, while ignoring the structural causes, which are centuries of extraction, emissions, and the refusal of the North to make reparations.  

Also, as we heard in Addis Ababa this September during the Second Africa Climate Summit, the narrative about the continent has to change. Africa is no longer viewing the climate catastrophe as a risk, but also as an opportunity. That means African leaders are shifting their focus from what should have been to what should be, and that means building our collective green future, the African way. 

Our verdict? Trump was wrong on the science but it’s true that  disaster aid without accountability is a con, and akin to apologising for punching someone in the face while keeping your fist raised. 

But wait: Who, really, is the con artist? 

That is the elephant in the room, for while Trump was busy shouting that climate change was a “hoax invented by the Chinese,” the real hoax was happening under everyone’s nose. Climate change is real, deadly, and urgent. But the way the response is structured is where the con job lies. The North pretends to lead, but mostly schemes to keep its privileges intact as the South shoulders the costs, loses land, and watches promises evaporate into hot air at every COP summit. 

So, in a sense, Trump was right. Not in the way he meant, but in the sense that the climate agenda has been hijacked by con men in suits who’ve discovered that you can turn planetary survival into just another racket. 

Climate change is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced. But it’s also the biggest opportunity for business-as-usual grifting. Carbon markets, fake finance, extraction in green disguise, net zero pledges without substance, all of it amounts to a massive transfer of responsibility and cost from the Global North to the South. 

So when Trump sneered that climate change was a “con job,” he was half-right. The science isn’t the scam. The scam is how those most responsible for the crisis have managed to spin it into yet another chapter of exploitation.