LET'S TALK CLIMATE

The New York Times is holding its Climate Forward conference. My colleague David Gelles, who writes the Climate Forward newsletter, is hosting. I talked to David about what to expect.

David, Why are world leaders so quiet on climate change when it’s been producing a steady stream of headline news this year?

I think there are three reasons. The first is that there’s a lot going on, right? Whether it’s war or A.I. or tariffs, the world is just consumed by a host of other crises.

The second reason is President Trump. His administration has dismissed the threat of climate change and is working to promote fossil fuels, reduce environmental regulations and stymie America’s adoption of renewable technologies. The rest of the world may be moving in a different direction, but they’re, at some level, captive to the American narrative, just by virtue of America’s power in the world.

The final reason is I think many leaders still have a hard time talking about climate. It’s still really hard to address. The actual solutions that are necessary to meaningfully slow down global warming require whole-cloth changes to our economies and energy systems that no one country alone can accomplish.

How are we doing fighting climate change? What’s the state of play?

It’s not great. Just a couple of years ago, people involved in climate policy were using the phrase “keep 1.5 alive.” That number referred to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is the threshold above preindustrial temperatures that scientists warned would be very risky to cross. Well, we’re already at 1.5 today, and every indication suggests that the planet is on track to warm somewhere between two and three degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. A lot of that warming is going to happen in the coming decades and century.

Now, there is real positive momentum happening on the ground, if you know where to look. Major economies like China are turbocharging their adoption of renewables. It’s happening in less developed countries like Pakistan too, which is adopting things like e-scooters. So there’s progress. But even when that progress is happening on a large scale, it’s still a drop in the bucket. We’ve got a long way to go.

You’re based in America, where, as you noted, the administration dismisses climate change and has made a strategic decision to double down on fossil fuels. Can the world combat climate change without the United States?

I think the world can’t do this without the U.S., but not just because the U.S. is a major emitter. It’s because U.S. policy and precedent and industry all matter for the rest of the world’s ability to scale these technologies.

Take natural gas. The Trump administration is using natural gas exports as a diplomatic tool. They’re actively encouraging countries around the world to hasten their adoption of natural gas, which is a major pollutant and is warming the planet. So what’s happening now in the United States isn’t just about domestic policy. It’s also making it much harder for the rest of the world to move quickly to address this issue.

- Author: Katrin Bennhold, The New York Times

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