US President Joe Biden, right, and Emmanuel Macron, France's president, at the White House on Dec. 1, 2022.
Photographer: Al Drago/BloombergClimate Politics
Competition From the US Is Forcing Europe to Up Its Green Game
A newly muscular American approach is forcing the European Union to get savvier about the business side of its climate strategy.
It looked like the start of a transatlantic trade war over climate policy.
As US President Joe Biden hosted his French counterpart in Washington on Dec. 1, not long after finalizing a $369 billion green tax-break bonanza, there was a rupture in the usual diplomatic cooperation on global warming. Just a day earlier, and in front of US lawmakers, French President Emmanuel Macron criticized protectionist features of the Inflation Reduction Act that would be “super aggressive” toward European businesses.