After a campaign featuring promises to slash landmark climate legislation, and a first term record that included pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, President-elect Donald Trump's win casts a shadow of doubt over the world of global climate policy.
As an isolationist, Trump-led American foreign policy cedes global leadership on the issue, an increasingly willing China can assume the spot instead.
Ceding global climate leadership to China "would be a mistake"China is looking to "play a more proactive role internationally on climate change," said Joanna Lewis, an associate professor at Georgetown University and expert in international climate policy.
But "it would be a mistake for the United States to completely cede not just [its] leadership role on climate change.
But the development of low carbon technologies, that's really the area that has been particularly competitive between China and the United States," said Lewis.
Persons:
Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, Donald Trump's, Trump, Joanna Lewis, Lewis, Joe Biden
Organizations:
European Union, Republicans, United Nations, BMO Capital Markets, Georgetown University
Locations:
Osaka, Japan, Paris, China, United States