S2-EP 013. A Historic and Personal View on the Impacts of American Social Evolution on Climate Action: A Conversation with Bill McKibben (Part 2)

Energy Current: In Search of Net Zero System

The intense rivalry between the U.S. and China, the ongoing brutal war between Russia and Ukraine, and the potential geopolitical conflict risk in the South China Sea remain the big challenges to addressing the climate crisis via productive international cooperation. Under the complicated domestic and international situations and uncertainties, how can we understand the climate policy and actions in both the United States and China? Where could the fragile relationship between the two countries go in the next 2-3 years? In Part 1 of the conversation, Bill McKibben discusses how the dynamic interaction between social responsibility and hyper-individualism of the American nation generates influences on its collective climate actions in the past and why the changes of American society in the 1960s-1980s matter with the global climate efforts. In Part 2, McKibben is focused on China and shares his experience of multiple visits to China. His arguments on the future of world climate governance and international collaborations between China and U.S. remind us of the complexity of reducing global carbon emissions in a short time.

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