Climate Clubs as a Lightning Rod for Tensions in Trade and Industrial Competitiveness

The Paris Agreement has established a transformative paradigm. While this transformation will create winners and losers, it now seems increasingly clear that overall, there are tremendous opportunities.

With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in the US, it seems a race has begun between major industrial powerhouses, the United States, the European Union, China and increasingly India to take advantage of those opportunities through ambitious industrial policies. At the same time, the COVID-induced supply chain crisis of 2021/22 and the Russian assault on Ukraine have contributed to a push towards securing and reshoring key strategic supply chains under the banner of industrial policy. Consequently, concerns have been raised that both of these developments lead to the introduction of protectionist measures which will ultimately hurt global decarbonization. While it is clear that we will need an innovation race towards building up green industries to support the global transformation, we need to make sure that this race is held under fair conditions and in a spirit of international cooperation and not ruinous competition.

When: 20/09/2023

Time: 5–7 pm