The second is whether to keep more people involved in the change. More than 100,000 farmers and ranchers are currently implementing climate-smart farming practices. Will climate change countermeasures and decentralized climate change countermeasures continue to expand in the future?
In the end, what matters is how good you are at building what you need to build. Steel embedded in the ground. One of the things that we’ve tried to develop as a specialty is to professionalize the development of social license around these new technologies so that we can scale them. Can we build as fast as we need to so that when the tower is built, the community feels less like they’re missing out and more like they’re building a barn together?
We talked about economic and industrial leadership, but political leadership is also really important. President Trump has indicated his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement for the first time in five years. Wouldn’t that make it much more difficult to hit the trajectory you just described?
Will that single action mean the end of U.S. leadership on climate change, or will we be sidelined from the progress we should be making? No, but it comes with symbolism and probably a lot of secondary meaning.
Since the inauguration of this administration, we have established a climate change headquarters in the West Wing. This is a new team. Gina McCarthy led it, and now I’m doing it. My team has senior directors with backgrounds in science, business, engineering, and policy who focus on all areas of the economy.
What happens when there is no focus at the highest levels, even though very talented people have a real commitment to drive it forward? What happens if we don’t show up and prioritize setting the rules of the road for a clean energy economy?
I think what will happen is that the United States will sideline American workers in the competition for clean energy jobs, and America’s global influence will decline. Over the next four years, not only is climate change unstoppable, but neither are our competitors slowing down to gain global influence as well as clean energy technology.
Four years is not a long time. I think he came to this situation thinking about his second term. Are you thinking about something you wanted to do but can’t do?
The biggest problem is, first of all, sectors that haven’t reached escape velocity. We must continue to work for the economy. This is unfinished business and needs to be advanced by state and local governments, the private sector, and preferably the federal government.
Second, make sure you are investing enough in your people and workforce. This country has a bad habit of scooping up top talent and not investing in institutions that bring more people into the workforce. Labor unions are at the forefront of this. Mr. Biden spent much of his time training trainees.
(Tag Translation) Science
