The best way to preserve the status quo is to destroy the machinery that promises a change to existing ways.
European Union, which doesn’t impose tariffs on photovoltaic imports, installed nearly twice as much solar last year as the US, and more than seven times as much as India, despite weather that’s far less suited for the technology
Beijing can’t stop the sun from shining on Chinese-made solar panels in Germany — but Moscow really did cut the flow of gas to Europe
Local content requirements and tariff barriers on solar panels, designed to build up domestic manufacturing industries, have operated in many places (including India, the US, South Africa, and Indonesia) as soft bans that have pushed up costs, slowed deployments, and favored incumbent fossil-fired power generation and emissions.
An acceleration in trade wars will only slow our path to zero.