Green Gridlock: Resolving the Transatlantic Disconnect on Climate Action

Climate action is increasingly intertwined with geopolitical risk — even among transatlantic allies. Both the US and EU are implementing landmark climate agendas laced with green industrial policies like subsidies and carbon tariffs that have raised concerns over competitiveness and trade fairness. Recent US-EU tensions over climate may preview a new era, in which even close partners and allies vie for dominance over clean energy supply chains and increasingly employ trade tools, putting at risk the energy transition itself. Achieving a better outcome that accelerates clean investment across markets without fragmenting trade will require adroit policymaking to reflect today’s reality of green industrial policy and climate tariffs. What form might climate cooperation take if one country’s progress might come at the expense of another’s?

About the Speaker: Sagatom Saha is an Adjunct Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA. He previously worked on cleantech competitiveness at the International Trade Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce and served as a special advisor in the Office of the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. In this role, he was chief of staff to Secretary Kerry’s clean energy and innovation team and led on cleantech competitiveness, nuclear energy, industrial decarbonization, Ukraine and Eastern Europe, and India. Sagatom was also a Fulbright researcher in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he advised the Ukrainian Parliament and cabinet ministries on strategies to advance energy reform.