Joseph Aldy, an economist and professor of the practice of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, has seen this all before. A climate in crisis. A big economic downturn. A transition from a Republican administration to a new Democratic president looking to drastically change the country’s direction. 

Twelve years ago, Aldy was a member of then-President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team as it took over from the George W. Bush administration. He says the challenges today are much the same—figuring out how to push aggressive measures to stave off the worst effects of climate change while bringing back lost jobs and jump-starting a stalled economy. Some of those Obama policies worked, he says, particularly investments in wind and solar subsidies that have now made clean energy sources competitive on price with dirty ones like coal.

But comparisons only go so far. Aldy says in many ways President-elect Joe Biden faces problems that are even more formidable and acute: a much shorter window to transform the energy foundation of our economy, a struggling economy made even worse by a raging pandemic, and a country even more polarized and in ideological conflict with itself — including a US Senate that’s still up for grabs and an outgoing president who is refusing to acknowledge that he’s even lost.

Professor Aldy and host Thoko Moyo explore those challenges and discuss how the new administration can respond—and maybe even succeed.

Joseph Aldy is a Harvard Kennedy School professor of the practice of public policy, a university fellow at Resources for the Future, a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also the faculty fhair for the Regulatory Policy Program at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. His research focuses on climate change policy, energy policy, and regulatory policy.

PolicyCast is a production of Harvard Kennedy School and is hosted by Associate Dean for Communications and Public Affairs Thoko Moyo.

PolicyCast is produced and engineered by Ralph Ranalli and co-produced by Susan Hughes.

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