Trump Uses UN Speech to Denounce “Green Energy Scam”
President Donald Trump used his address to the United Nations General Assembly this week to mount one of his most forceful critiques yet of renewable energy and international climate policy. Framing himself as a defender of affordable, reliable power, he told delegates that his administration had delivered lower gasoline prices and cheaper electricity at home while rolling back what he called “false” green mandates. It was Trump’s first speech to the General Assembly since his reelection, delivered on 23 September 2025, and it set a combative tone on energy and climate.
Trump portrayed renewables as ineffective and costly, accusing governments of “getting rid of the falsely named renewables” and describing wind and solar power as a joke that does not work and is the most expensive energy ever conceived. Trump said governments are forced to prop them up with massive subsidies and argued that “you’re supposed to make money with energy, not lose money.” He moved to a broader critique of Europe’s energy policies, claiming that Germany had “gone green” and was “going bankrupt” before returning to fossil fuel and nuclear power, which he said had improved its fortunes. He also criticised restrictions on oil and gas in the North Sea, urging leaders to stop ruining the Scottish and English countryside with windmills and solar panels and to exploit untapped reserves instead.
The president reserved some of his sharpest language for the international climate agenda itself. He accused the United Nations and environmental groups of making dire predictions about global warming for decades that were wrong and called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.” He said that if countries did not get away from what he called the green scam they would fail and described the concept of a carbon footprint as a hoax made up by people with evil intentions. He argued that Europe’s emissions cuts had simply shifted manufacturing to polluting countries such as China, which now produces more CO₂ than all other developed nations combined, and claimed that European electricity bills are four to five times more expensive than those in China and two to three times higher than in the United States, while American gasoline prices are “way down” under his administration.
Trump also defended his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, calling it a fake deal that would have cost the United States “like a trillion dollars” while allowing China and Russia more lenient targets. Throughout the address he portrayed renewable mandates and carbon policies as a green scam that drives up costs, shifts industry to other countries and weakens national security. His remarks highlight how sharply the U.S. position under his administration diverges from many other governments pursuing rapid clean-energy deployment. In his view, fossil fuels and nuclear remain the backbone of affordable, reliable power and rolling back what he calls fake climate policies is essential to national prosperity.