The Oh, Hello and

welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood.

Two guests today.

In seconds, Kate Gordon will talk about China, climate and the Paris Accords,

and then Nancy McLean will talk about the right

stealth war and democracy with special attention to the economist James Buchanan.

When Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords, there was a lot of speculation

what it would do to what is generously called American leadership in the world and China's

role as a possible successor to a fading US. Here to sort that out for us is Kate Gordon. She's a senior advisor to the

Paulson Institute where she spends much of her time studying Chinese

environmental policy and its international ramifications. Kate Gordon.

Welcome, Kate.

So right after Trump announced withdrawal

from the Paris Accords, a lot of, there was a lot of speculation

that this was ceding leadership on global climate policy and even in the economic realm as well to China.

What do you make of that?

China usually plays a fairly long game and this isn't as if they kind of turned on a dime

with that announcement the country's been focused on climate and energy

policy from an economic perspective actually for a while The 13th five-year plan specifically decouples

economic growth and energy intensity, which is a big deal for an industrial country. And it

also lays out some pretty significant policy plays on climate

like a price on carbon at the national level and a huge amount of new investment into renewable energy and all kinds of efficiency measures.

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