Energy Security and Climate Initiative Media Mentions and External Appearances

[On the Paris Agreement] The most important piece of good news, and it wasn't a foregone conclusion, is that other countries have stayed in and doubled down on their general determination not to walk away, not to let the US 'cancel' the agreement.

[On others filling the void following the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement] We're missed and people are angry. They're angry. The United States was a big part of the reason why this agreement came out the way this came out and you had any number of countries that sort of extended themselves a little bit outside of their comfort zone trying to accommodate positions that we were putting forward.

[On the US Paris Agreement withdrawal] It’s good news that other countries haven’t walked away. The less positive part is that it has been very damaging for the US. In the absence of the US, we are seeing some countries try to pull back on what was agreed to in Paris. When you have the largest historical emitter not part of the deal, that is obviously not good.

[Of the Paris Agreement] It's really damaging for the U.S. to be on the way out.

This may sound like a technical exercise, but it matters. Guidelines have a lot to do with how strong the regime becomes.

Pulling out of the Paris Agreement, I feel like this is actually very harmful to the US in terms of being viewed as a reliable party in international negotiations and agreements.

For solar, a trade war is going to play out differently than other industries. Unlike in other industries where you would see a lot of trade move around, I think [solar] companies will suck it up and pay the tariffs. Gross explains that China’s growth is driven by the country’s own solar manufacturing, climbing energy needs, ambitious plans addressing climate change, and pollution problems. China has a growing power demand to serve. China also has horrendous local air pollution problems. I don’t want to belittle their climate commitment, but it’s easier for them to build up their renewable energy industry when they are also helping with a more tangible problem.

[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.

The U.S. energy industry is headed for an upswing, but that has more to do with the discipline that a period of low oil prices has instilled in companies and less to do with the president's policies. But public knowledge of the energy industry is not very extensive, if he takes credit for the health of the industry, people may buy it.