Region: International

A Trumped-Up Energy Emergency

We have weathered past threats to energy security through democratic processes, not by executive fiat.

The Executive Order has fabricated an energy emergency and is doubly wrongheaded. First, as the statistics bear out, there is neither a domestic energy emergency nor an energy crisis. The U.S. has effectively secured energy independence. More significantly, Trump’s politically driven, fossil fuel-dependent energy portfolio is neither diversified nor economically sound.

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Trump’s Offshore Wind Ban vs. China’s Wind Juggernaut

Why is the Trump administration kneecapping the U.S. offshore wind industry while China becomes a global giant?

This January, when I was in Beijing for a workshop at Tsinghua University on offshore wind, presentation after presentation from Chinese experts revealed just how China has become an absolute juggernaut in offshore wind. Professors from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Tsinghua walked us through the governance structure — state planning, targets, industrial …

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Tariffs and Clean Energy: What You Need to Know

The effect of tariffs on energy markets is complex, and a lot depends on the details.

International trade economics is complicated, and we can’t be certain of how tariffs will work out, particularly in the long term when economies have fully adjusted to them.  Trump’s hope is that the tariffs will cause a boom in U.S. production, although there is also evidence that protected industries are less efficient and innovative, resulting in higher consumer prices. Impacts on clean energy could be negative, The same is true for impacts on fossil fuels.

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Are Climate Pledges on Life Support?

A Q&A with Catherine McKenna, who led the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Expert Group on Net-Zero Commitments of Non-State Entities.

Catherine McKenna knows firsthand how to persist in the face of pushback on climate policies. She was Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change during the first Trump Administration, and she led negotiations of that country’s first national climate plan over intense oil industry opposition. “The oil sands sector and the politicians they sponsor aren’t just greenwashing a product,” …

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What Will 2025 Bring in Global Climate Finance?

Last year, international negotiations continued to disappoint on global climate policy, forests, and finance. This year, subnational governments must continue to lead.

As they have for many years, nations came together in 2024 at various climate-related events to push for a brighter future. From the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Cali, Colombia in October 2024, followed immediately by COP29 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) …

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What policies lead to greenhouse gas emissions declines?

A recent study emphasizes the role of policy mixes in driving short-term emissions reductions

In a series of posts (beginning here, and ending here) last month, I outlined an approach to climate policy that emphasizes the role of subsidies in building political support and technological progress for climate policy.  In doing so, I drew heavily on existing political science research and case studies from North America and Europe.  But …

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The Environmental Gifts of the Magi

Clean air. Clean water. We receive these public goods every day without payment, as gifts from everyone to all of us.

One of the Christmas classics is the Jimmy Stewart movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. Stewart’s character is feeling suicidal, until he learns how much he has unknowingly helped others and how grateful they are. It’s heartwarming if also very corny. There’s a flip side to that story: the need to remember how much others have contributed …

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Looking Ahead to the Second Trump Administration

Does the IRA have staying power?

This is the seventh in a series of posts.  The first post is here.  The second post is here.  The third post is here.  The fourth post is here.  The fifth post is here.  The sixth post is here. The incoming Trump Administration has, of course, called for ending efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, …

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Broadening the Scope of Climate Policy

How to expand climate policy to new places and new sectors

This is the sixth in a series of posts.  The first post is here.  The second post is here.  The third post is here.  The fourth post is here.  The fifth post is here. The political dynamics of decarbonization that I’ve sketched out are very specific to time, space, and economic sector.  The policy approaches …

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How to Commit to Decarbonization

Feedback effects can lock in decarbonization policies, for better and for worse

This is the fifth in a series of posts.  The first post is here.  The second post is here.  The third post is here.  The fourth post is here.  Decarbonization is a long-term challenge, and it requires commitments to drive the investments required for innovation and deployment of non-fossil-fuel energy sources.  But long-term commitments, which …

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