David G. Victor

[On U.S. subnational climate action] When you add up all the efforts of the pioneers over the next decade or so, they’re going to be cutting US emission maybe four percent. So that’s a contribution. But we cannot stop the climate problem without much bigger cuts across the nation and ultimately across the whole globe.

Cities make great laboratories for combating climate change because some of the hardest tasks in cutting emissions involve activities such as urban planning and rebuilding transportation infrastructures — areas where cities are on the front lines. What's needed is for these leaders, like San Diego, to make their successes more visible — so that more cities here and abroad follow.

[On coronavirus economic stimulus negotiations] If they have the votes, the stimulus package could be the single-most important climate policy that this country has ever adopted.

[On China's carbon neutrality goal] There is a long-term trajectory toward more efficiency and lower emissions in China, and it is possible that we have already seen peak coal consumption and now peaking emissions. But getting to zero will be really hard, and so far none of the policy detail needed to evaluate that is in place.

Scientists are often asked whether it is possible to meet some ambitious goal like 2°, and if everything lines up perfectly and people have perfect information and they act in perfect coordination then yes those kinds of goals are possible. But when you evaluate them through the lens of how quickly technological systems change and how quickly political systems change then the possible looks a whole lot harder.

[On U.S. climate policy] We had at the end of the Obama administration the first-ever federal wide regulatory regime on climate. Most of that, the Trump administration has actively rolled back.