The most ambitious clean energy project in history, Europe’s Green Deal marks the beginning of a new era in clean energy policy. Notwithstanding its challenges, Europe’s plan represents a “broad roadmap” for remaking its entire economy with the aim of creating the first climate-neutral region in the world by 2050. Underwritten by one trillion Euros in investment, the Green Deal calls for establishing the first-ever climate law anchored to the 2050 climate neutrality target. [...]
China is of course the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of cleantech, but it is also the world’s largest carbon emitter. As the world’s manufacturing hub, China remains the largest producer of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles, but it is also the top investor in clean energy. In addition to this, China is the world’s leader in renewable energy patents with the U.S., Japan, and Europe lagging behind. Together with China, the EU’s Green Deal could successfully remake the economy of Europe and much of Asia.
The larger significance of a green EU-China partnership is that it would provide the economies of scale and scope that the world desperately needs. Together, China and Europe could make it much cheaper for other regions in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to decarbonize. China is already globally dominant in renewables, electric vehicles (EV), energy storage, rail infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI), telecommunications, and robotics. Even as the country’s rapidly expanding heft now rivals the United States, its massive capacity for cleantech production could effectively move the world beyond fossil fuels. [...]
At home, the United States faces the real possibility of social and political implosion. Its market-led society has given birth to a kind of corporate feudalism that has effectively nullified its democracy. As Jeffrey Sachs points out, each U.S. election cycle now costs $8 billion or more, and is routinely subverted by billionaires, Big Oil, the military-industrial complex, and the private health-care lobby. To put this in perspective, the richest four hundred Americans now have more wealth than 185 million of their fellow citizens.
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