The second is whether we continue to engage more and more people in the transition. We have more than 100,000 farmers and ranchers currently adopting climate-smart agricultural practices. Will that climate action, that distributed climate action, continue to expand?
What it comes down to is how well we build what we need to build. Steel in the ground. One of the things we're trying to develop as a specialty is really the professionalization of developing social license around these new technologies so they can scale. Can we build at the speed needed by ensuring that when a tower goes up, the community feels like they're building the warehouse together, not like they're being shortchanged?
We've talked about economic and industrial leadership, but political leadership is also really important. Trump has signaled that he will withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, for the second time in five years. Wouldn't that make achieving the trajectory you just described much more difficult?
Would such an action mark the end of U.S. climate leadership or marginalize us in the progress we need to make? Are not. But it carries with it symbolism and perhaps a lot of secondary implications.
Since the beginning of this administration, we have had climate headquarters in the West Wing. A new team. Gina McCarthy took the lead, now I do too. We have senior executives on my team, focused on every sector of the economy, with backgrounds in science, business, engineering, policy.
What happens when you don't have the highest level of focus with the significant commitment of very talented people driving it? What happens when America shows up at multilateral forums or bilateral dialogues and doesn't prioritize setting the rules for a clean energy economy?
I think what happens is the United States puts American workers out of the race for clean energy jobs, and we reduce our influence globally. Not only is climate not stopping in the next four years, our competitors are not slowing down either—to capture the edge in clean energy technology but also for global influence.
Four years is not a lot of time. You've probably thought about this about second semester. Are you thinking about things you want to do but can't?
The first important thing is the areas where we have not yet achieved escape velocity. We must continue to push forward for the sake of our economy. That is unfinished business that needs to be continued by state and local governments, the private sector and hopefully the federal government.
The second thing is to make sure we invest enough in talent and the workforce. In this country, we have a bad habit of skimming talent and not investing in institutions that attract more people into the workforce. Unions are getting ahead of that; Biden spent a lot of time learning the trade.