Washington needs to recognize Chinese strengths, not rail against them.
The real action fighting climate change is happening in China. The United States—especially with President Donald Trump back in office—remains at risk of getting left in the dust as the rest of the world abandons fossil fuels for a brighter future. The shape of an abundant green future is coming into focus but is still far from certain . Rapid cost declines of solar, batteries, and wind provide a clear way to not only mitigate the worst outcomes of climate change without breaking the bank but also improve daily life. The shape of an abundant green future is coming into focus but is still far from certain. Rapid cost declines of solar, batteries, and wind provide a clear way to not only mitigate the worst outcomes of climate change without breaking the bank but also improve daily life. The real action fighting climate change is happening in China. The United States—especially with President Donald Trump back in office—remains at risk of getting left in the dust as the rest of the world abandons fossil fuels for a brighter future. Washington needs to recognize that all paths to global decarbonization in the short to medium term are partly reliant on Chinese production and technologies. Going too far on Chinese tariffs risks leaving the United States even further behind than it is, as most of the rest of the world converges on a green revolution. The Trump administration is operating under the belief that tariffs are a one-size-fits-all industrial policy tool, with the latest round raising rates on China to 125 percent. Bans and high tariffs will not make the United States less dependent but rather raise the price of intermediate inputs for which few alternatives to China exist in many clean energy sectors. But perhaps more damagingly, they will stifle the competition needed to push U.S. companies to the technological frontier. The infamous 1964 chicken tax—a 25 percent tariff put on light trucks in retaliation for trade restrictions on U.S. chicken exports—is…
Jonas Nahm, Jeremy Wallace, Jonas Nahm, Jeremy Wallace