The second is whether we continue to involve more and more people in the transformation. We have more than 100,000 farmers and ranchers now adopting climate-smart agricultural practices. Will this climate action, this distributed climate action, continue to develop?
The final thing is how well we are able to build the things we need. Steel in the ground. One of the things we’re trying to develop as a discipline is the professionalization of developing social acceptability around these new technologies so that they can scale. Can we build at the speed we need by ensuring that when a tower is built, the community feels like they built the barn together, not like they were shortchanged?
We talked about economic and industrial leadership, but political leadership also matters. Trump announced that he would withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, for the second time in five years. Won’t that make it much more difficult to achieve the trajectory you just described?
Does this single action mean the end of American climate leadership or does it sideline us from the progress we need to make? No, but it carries symbolism and probably many second-order implications.
Since the beginning of this administration, we have had a climate headquarters in the West Wing. A new team. Gina McCarthy directed it, now I do. My team has senior directors who focus on all sectors of the economy, with backgrounds in science, business, engineering and policy.
What happens when you don’t have that level of focus at the highest level with the substantial commitment of very talented people driving it? What happens when the United States shows up at multilateral forums or bilateral conversations and doesn’t prioritize setting the rules of the road for the clean energy economy?
I think what’s happening is that the United States is sidelining American workers in the race for clean energy jobs, and we’re diminishing our influence globally. Not only is the climate not going to stand still in the next four years, but our competitors aren’t slowing down either – to gain an edge on clean energy technologies, but also to exert global influence.
Four years isn’t a lot of time. You must have thought about a second term. Do you think about the things you wanted to do but can’t do?
The most important are, firstly, the sectors in which we have not reached escape velocity. We must continue to push for the good of our economy. This is unfinished business that must be continued by state and local governments, by the private sector, and hopefully by the federal government.
The second thing is making sure you invest enough in talent and workforce. We have a bad habit in this country of trapping talent and not investing in institutions that attract more people into the job market. Unions are on the front line; Biden has spent a lot of time on growing apprenticeships.
