2025-08-04
7 分钟The Economist hi there, it's Jason Palmer here,
co host of the Intelligence, Our daily news and current affairs podcast.
This is Editor's Picks.
You're about to hear an article from the latest edition of the Economist.
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Curbing climate change was never going to be easy.
The fundamental energy balance of a planet can't be changed overnight.
Nor can a fossil fuel based economy that serves billions of people be replaced without furious political objections.
But today the problem looks particularly hard.
On July 29, continuing President Donald Trump's gutting of efforts to reduce emissions,
America's Environmental Protection Agency said it would renounce its main authority to regulate greenhouse gases.
That goes along with his reckless attacks on climate science in Europe.
The war in Ukraine has spurred growth in defence budgets,
squeezing spending on green policies, which also face renewed political opposition.
Some voters think the cost of cutting emissions is too high or should fall on others.
In poor countries, which have historically emitted far less than rich ones,
many resent green policies they see as foreign and heedless of the desperate local need for energy.
Sensing the political winds, big global firms have gone quiet about greenery,
though many still pursue it.