10/04/2026
Amid the immediacy of the war and the economic shockwave unleashed in the Middle East, a slower-burning but consequential risk is slipping out of focus.
The withdrawal of the US from meaningful climate leadership isn’t just symbolic—it weakens the global weight behind the scientific guidance of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. That guidance, long supported by the US “scientific powerhouse”, has been foundational in helping governments, businesses and communities understand the mounting risks: more frequent and severe natural disasters, rising sea levels and growing threats to food security, amongst other changes underway.
Climate change doesn’t pause while attention shifts elsewhere to geopolitical or economic shocks. It compounds quietly, steadily, and often irreversibly.
This moment calls for others—the European Union, China, Australia and like-minded partners with scientific weight—to step forward with greater ambition and coordination. Not only to fill the leadership gap, but to ensure that long-term systemic risks are not overshadowed by short-term noise.
Because the most dangerous crises are often the ones we choose to overlook.
Without US backing and more money being spent than brought in, the IPCC’s trust fund could run out by 2028.
