Thursday, September 18, 2025
Political Mayhem Thursday: Political Will vs. Market Forces
In 2016, 196 signatories (mostly nations, but including a few entities like Greenland) agreed to work towards limiting climate change in the Paris Agreement.
Since then, governments have been a mixed lot. Some have worked to hit the goals set in Paris, while the US pulled out of the agreement in 2020 (under Trump), rejoined in 2021 (under Biden), and then withdrew again in 2025 (under Trump). The follow-up to that conference has never come together, and political will for it is fading.
Meanwhile, market forces have begun to push economies towards renewable energy including wind and solar. A big part of that dynamic has been that China has developed a huge manufacturing capacity to churn out electric cars, solar panels, batteries, and wind turbines. The result of this upsurge in supply has been (predictably) a huge drop in prices-- to the point that for many countries, their cheapest method to generate electricity are these green options. This has been most prominent in African and Asian countries where China already has market influence, but it has increasingly been a factor on every inhabited continent.
That means that China controls the energy markets of the future. Meanwhile, the US has become the world's largest export of oil and gas and is getting rid of incentives for the production and implementation of solar, wind, and electric vehicles.
I recently bought a plug-in hybrid car. It works as an electric car for 25 miles or so, and most of the time I am driving it in that mode. And, wow-- it is fantastic. The performance is outstanding in electric mode, and the vehicle is remarkably quiet. It's just a better thing. And over time, people will buy them not because they are "green," but because they are a much better value.
In the end, that may make all the difference.
