U.S. entrepreneur and environmentalist Drew Shula has expressed his hope that the United States and China could consider themselves allies in the fight against the climate crisis and work together further to find solutions to climate change.
Shula made the statement during an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) on the 2025 Summer Davos Forum, which was held in north China's Tianjin Municipality from June 24 to 26.
The forum, officially known as the 16th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, was themed "Entrepreneurship for a New Era." It focused on five key areas -- deciphering the world economy, outlook on China, industries disrupted, investing in people and the planet, and new energy and materials.
Shula said he is absolutely against the Trump administration pulling the United States back towards fossil fuel energy.
"We just had a transition in our federal government from President Biden to President Trump just about six months ago. The Biden administration was very supportive of sustainability and renewable energy, and the Trump administration is extremely against it and pulling us back towards fossil fuel energy. And this is a big problem. The U.S. is no longer a leader in the space. We're the only country that's pulled out of the Paris Agreement, which is really disappointing. So I hope that the global community understands that while Trump and the people who voted for him in the U.S. support these issues, there's about half of the people in the United States who do not support this and people like me that are really working towards sustainability globally," said Shula.
"I'd absolutely love everyone in both the United States and China to not think of ourselves as competitors, but to really think of ourselves as allies in this fight against and solving the climate crisis. We have one planet. We're all one people without borders around the Earth. So there's so much that we can do together in trade, in advancing new technologies, in supporting entrepreneurs like me, in starting companies that will help to provide tools and solutions to the climate crisis, in sharing ideas between our two countries. So we can have such a positive relationship between the U.S. and China. It doesn't need to be competitive. Sometimes competition helps innovation, but I think about China as just full of wonderful people and an inspiring place, so I'm drawing a lot of inspiration from China myself," Shula added.
American environmentalist hopes for China-U.S. cooperation on tackling climate change
American environmentalist hopes for China-U.S. cooperation on tackling climate change
