World Review: COP30 and China’s Race to Electrify; Is Trump Spending Too Much Time Abroad?
A synopsis of this week's edition of World Review
Each week, I host a video podcast called World Review with Ivo Daalder where journalists from major news outlets around the world join me to discuss the latest global news stories of the week.
Today, November 14, we discussed the COP30 Summit and the direction of President Trump’s foreign policy agenda. Joining me this week were Ravi Agrawal, the editor in chief of Foreign Policy, and Yasmeen Abutaleb, political reporter for The Washington Post.
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While I encourage you to watch or listen to the episode (and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!), here are a few interesting things I took away from our discussion:
The COP30 climate conference is different this year, with the U.S. turning away from its role as a leader on climate policy, China ascendant on green energy, and the world distracted by competing priorities. Brazil, the host country, has made a point of increasing ties with China in the face of pressure from the Trump Administration. Without U.S. leadership, Ravi noted, discussions at COP30 seem more likely to result in a series of minilateral discussions and agreements, rather than the large multilateral deals of the past. It remains to be seen if the rest of the world will move ahead on climate as the U.S. turns toward the past.
One thing evident at the COP30 summit, is China’s undisputed leadership on clean energy, having turned itself into the world leader in the production of solar panels, batteries, clean grid infrastructure, and electric vehicles. Through a massive industrial policy effort, China has turned itself into an “electrostate.” Developing economies now import Chinese energy infrastructure and electric vehicles, giving China massive influence and a possible soft power advantage that it has long sought.
Next, we turned to U.S. politics and foreign policy. Yasmeen noted that it was remarkable how President Trump decided to embark on a flurry of international trips and seek diplomatic deals during the government shutdown. In the past, when a shutdown threatened or the debt ceiling was about to be broken, Presidents chose to cancel trips and focus on problems at home. Although he ran in many ways on affordability, Trump has struggled to communicate to a MAGA base concerned with the economy and looking for a U.S.-less entangled abroad, not more.
Those are my quick takes on this week’s episode here on World Review. To get the full story, please listen to the episode itself.