Will US Tariffs Make World Leaders Value the Stability of Renewables?
by Dan Gearino, Inside Climate News
Shell expanded on some of these ideas in the 2023 edition of the report.
I reread the 2021 report this week after Gernot Wagner, a Columbia University economist, pointed it out to me as an eerily prescient description of our times.
“None of this is, in any way, shape or form, rational,” Wagner said of the tariffs.
He was stunned by the details of Trump’s actions, such as a 46 percent tariff on Vietnam, which is the leading exporter of solar panels to the United States. Even with the 90-day pause, this trade relationship is now much less stable.
Wagner remains confident that the transition away from fossil fuels has momentum that can’t be stopped, but thinks Trump’s actions could slow that progress in ways that are harmful for everyone.
“We’ll all be poorer for it. The planet will be hotter for it,” he said.
