David G. Victor - Mentions and Appearances
[On Russia, Ukraine, and energy issues] A 'somewhat bigger issue' than Nord Stream 2 is that the extra revenues [are] flowing back to Russia while the Russian state engages in mischief.
[On climate finance institutions] Most of these institutions were either created by the United States, or the U.S. had a big role in shaping them. When the American domestic politics turned south on multilateralism, there is this larger kind of stasis-inducing effect on the rest of the international system.
When the politics of serious energy policy become impossible to manage . . . a torrent of symbolic actions fills the space.
[On tariffs on Chinese steel] Another paragraph in the essay the Trump administration is writing against international institutions.
Paris has a role to play in managing the climate problem, but what is really going to drive big reductions in emissions is change in technology and change in the political support for the policies needed to deploy those technologies. At the end of the day, [leaving Paris] doesn’t change the facts on the ground that many states are going ahead and doing something in this area...that the electric power industry is grappling with the need for more renewables and more gas, and lower emissions, and those are the facts that actually matter.
Comments like those made by Trump last week undercut the soft power of the U.S. and tarnish the country's reputation - and the reputation of Trump himself. They probably create some domestic politics problems for countries that want to buy LNG from U.S. suppliers.
Neither Congress nor the administration is putting much attention on what we know would have a big impact on long-term transformation of the energy system—massive innovation and deployment of new technology. Meanwhile, the country and markets stumble on.
Increasing the transparency of pledges would make it easier for countries to pressure each other do more, which is how the Paris Agreement was designed. Countries could come back and say, ‘Here’s what has worked, what didn’t, what our progress is and what other countries can learn.' We know from other areas of international cooperation that that dynamic actually works pretty well.
[On U.S. intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate] Even in places like Europe, you have industry groups worried about competitiveness. [U.S. withdrawal] makes the politics in other countries that much harder.
[On finance and the Paris Agreement on climate change] Developing countries were counting on that aid as a condition of participating.The concern is that they’d become less amenable to working together in the future and the whole machinery gets gummed up.