Can America lead a global green transition?

The United States has set a target of 2030 to halve its greenhouse gas emissions, a goal of 100% clean energy by 2035 and Net Zero by 2050. Yet its CO2 emissions only fell by 3% in 2023, an increase on its average of 1% reduction each year between 2012 and 2021 but still some way short of the 6% annual reduction required to achieve its climate targets under the Paris Agreement.

The US faces significant challenges to decarbonise: a poor railway infrastructure means it is still heavily reliant on road and air transport; 144 million homes to heat, many of them requiring upgrades to be more energy efficient; and legacy power grids, mostly built to accommodate coal and has plants, are in need of an overhaul to be ready for a green transition.

However, the nation is one of the world’s great innovators and has the capital and the skills to overcome the technical obstacles to lead the way towards a Net Zero economy. But does it have the will to overcome the logistical and political hurdles?

Speakers:

• Dr Leah C. Stokes—Professor of Environmental Politics at Uni of California, Senior Policy Consultant at Rewiring America and host of climate change podcast A Matter of Degrees, author of Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States.
• Dr Ellen Stofan—Under Secretary for Science and Research, Smithsonian Institution. Under Secretary Stofan oversees the Smithsonian science museums and six science research centres as well as the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, and the Museum Conservation Institute. Stofan is the former director of the National Air and Space Museum and NASA Chief Scientist. 
• Angela Saini (Chair)—Award-winning, New York-based science journalist, broadcaster and author of The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule and Superior: The Return of Race Science, Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong. Angela teaches science writing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.