Energy Security and Climate Initiative Media Mentions and External Appearances

[On COP24 U.N. climate negotiations in Poland and the Paris Agreement "rulebook"] Paris was a breakthrough, but Paris has to be ... brought to life in an operational sense by the rules ... that will hopefully get agreed to at this COP.

[On COP 24 U.N. climate negotiations] In some ways, the biggest challenge in Katowice is just going to be the sheer amount of text that'll be produced.

[On recent research in climate science] Global warming is accelerating. [These] three trends [falling air pollution enabling more of the sun’s warmth to reach the Earth’s surface,aerosol pollutants reflecting sunlight, and a long-term natural climate cycle in the Pacific entering a warm phase] will combine over the next 20 years to make climate change faster and more furious than anticipated.

[On COP 24 U.N. climate negotiations and the Paris "Rulebook"] There’s also the issue of checking up on each country’s measurements. Before the Paris agreement, China was considered a “developing” nation subject to less-stringent reporting requirements. That changed after 2015. What will the reporting requirements be and how will they be verified? That’s what the negotiators will be duking out in Poland. I’m curious to see how far they get.

[On the state of mulilateralism in the world today, and its effects on energy and climate issues] The global political environment is really challenging right now, with nationalism taking hold in many countries.

[On U.S. role in climate leadership, in run-up to COP 24] It is an almost complete abdication. We have really, really dropped out of our leadership position. If we don't lead, who does? It's not clear who that's going to be and if anyone will fill that role.

[On U.S. role in the world on energy and climate issues in lead-up to COP24] The global political environment is really challenging right now. It is a challenging time just for the idea of multilateralism in general.

[On COP 24 U.N. climate negotiations] I think it's fair to say it's the most important, consequential talk since Paris.

[On the urgency of climate science versus the political reaction] These two ships are sailing in opposite directions. In one direction, the science is showing that the problem is more - even more severe than we originally thought. In the other direction, we're learning that the political challenges in making big reductions are more challenging than people had imagined.

[On climate change] There's been a lot of progress kind of in bits and pieces here and there, but it's not progress that adds up to the 50, 60, 80 percent reduction in global emissions that you need to stop global warming.