David G. Victor - Mentions and Appearances

The really big effect of what Trump has done is to send a message to the rest of the world that the United States is not credible on climate change. The rest of the world is not going to know if we’re serious because we keep swinging back and forth. Over the past 50 years, the effectiveness in creating international deals came from U.S. leadership. And now nobody knows if we’re going to do that anymore.

[On carbon border adjustments and bi and trilateral trade deals] That’s exactly the kind of strategy that, I think, will end up breaking the logjam on climate.

[On shifts in energy demand related to COVID-19] This is unprecedented, so we simply don't have good models that tell us what happens.

[On COVID-19 and renewable energy investments] Pre-pandemic, market forces were pointing in the direction of substantial new investments in renewables. But the pandemic has put a big shock into this.

[On COVID-19 and oil demand] If the economy recovers, it is highly likely that oil is going to recover to where it was before.

[On coronavirus's effects on international cooperation] What's happening is that all countries have turned inward. The political support in most countries for extensive international engagement has been fraying. That's been going on for a long time, because of the nature of international cooperation and the fact that it's not delivered benefits back to populations widely.

It’s not surprising that the most ardent nationalist populists—in Brazil, the US, EU skeptics in Britain—are also the most skeptical of Paris. But that whole agenda is deeply problematic for climate because ultimately what you need is a set of institutions and some measure of cooperation that helps diffuse good ideas and products around the global economy.

[On the Trump administration's rollback of vehicle efficiency standards] In the march of rollbacks of climate rules, this is the biggest step.

[On the Trump administration's rollback of vehicle efficiency standards] One thing we’ve learned from the Trump administration is be careful what you ask for. The auto industry wanted a smoother glide path to a more efficient future. Instead what they got was the populist politics of the far right, which is blowing up in their faces.

[On climate change and the U.S. presidential election] The Democratic base is fired up and fed up.