Energy Security and Climate Initiative Media Mentions and External Appearances

[On COP24, and the Paris Agreement climate negotiations] Rulebooks are important, but it is easy to over-state their relevance because the Paris process is, by design, decentralised – it relies on countries and regions to take the lead with pledges of action and commitments to take the climate problem seriously.

[On the Paris Agreement on climate change and COP24] My lodestar is: what is the way in which we stay faithful to the Paris agreement? Not what does the US want or not, because I can’t speak for the US, and it won’t come as a surprise to you that people aren’t all that interested about what the US likes or doesn’t right now.

[On the latest climate science, in lead-up to COP 24 U.N. climate negotiations] It's even worse than we thought. I think the stakes are quite high. If you end up having a failure in this meeting, an inability to get a rule book done, I think you'd have that much more sense among people that this is really going in a very, very bad direction.

[On the role of the United States in the COP24 climate negotiations] It's not a very appealing argument to ask other countries to push for a certain outcome in Katowice in order to keep the door open for a future president because the US has walked away… in a very disruptive and aggravating manner in the eyes of virtually any other country you can think of.

[On COP 24 and the U.N. climate process] A ranked list of countries with the highest gross domestic product per capita today will show a significant number of developing countries ranking higher than some developed countries. The idea of apportioning climate responsibilities on the basis of an immutable division of countries from 1992 makes no sense.

[On COP 24 U.N. climate negotiations, amid current trends in geopolitics] It will be interesting to see how this local distaste for multilateralism plays against a growing understanding of the urgency of the problem.

[On COP 24 and the Paris Agreement on climate "Rulebook"] That’s essentially needed to turn Paris from an accord on paper into a working, operational and effective regime.

[On COP 24 climate negotiations and current challenges to multilateralism] The global political environment is really challenging right now, with nationalism taking hold in many countries.

[On COP 24 and the U.N. climate negotiations] Getting a global agreement among 200 countries is never an easy lift. Even with a bring-your-own-goals structure that is embodied on the Paris agreement, and countries still need to agree on the specifics of the rule book.

[On the COP 24 U.N. climate negotiations for the Paris Agreement "Rulebook"] I think it will get done. I don’t think it will be perfect.