Top bankers and business people say Joe Biden has leapfrogged Europe in its handling of the climate crisis, as companies and investors seek to capitalise on Washington’s huge green energy package.
Delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos were united in praise for the US president’s Inflation Reduction Act, a $369bn package that includes subsidies aimed at luring companies to invest in technologies that will help cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“The US programme is very smart, and huge,” said Jan Jenisch, chief executive of Swiss building materials group Holcim. “So much needs to be built, from factories, to logistics and infrastructure. For the next 10 years, this will be an engine for growth.”