内容摘要：Vaughan Gething said there was “no conflict of interest” in accepting the money from Dauson Environmental Group, which owes the Welsh government-owned Development Bank of Wales (DBW) £400,000.

Vaughan Gething said there was “no conflict of interest” in accepting the money from Dauson Environmental Group, which owes the Welsh government-owned Development Bank of Wales (DBW) £400,000.

What is motivating Trump is a fear of being at a disadvantage, argues Christopher Knittel, a professor of applied economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)."I think what is driving this is because China is the dominant player on the processing side," he says. "It is that processing stage, which is the high-margin stage of the business, so China is making a lot of money."

As he puts it, it is a "happy coincidence" that this could end up supporting green technology.The key question, though, is whether the US is too late to fully capitalise on the sector.In the early days, the green transition was "framed as a burden" for countries, according to LSE's Bob Ward.

The Biden administration was highly supportive of green technology industries through its introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August 2022, which offers tax credits, loans and other incentives to technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, from battery technologies for electric vehicles to solar panels.By August 2024, it was estimated to have brought $493bn (£382bn) of investment to US green industry, according to the think tank Clean Investment Monitor.

And yet little work was done to support upstream processes like obtaining critical minerals, says Ms Gray from Benchmark Intelligence. Instead, the Biden administration focused heavily on downstream manufacturing - the process of getting products from the manufacturer to the end consumer.

But Trump's recent moves to procure these critical minerals suggest a focus on the upstream process may now be happening.Climate leaders are putting a lot of faith in the fact that the transition to green energy will not be derailed by the new Trump administration.

"The result from this election will be seen as a major blow to global climate action," said Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief."But it cannot and will not halt the changes under way to decarbonise the economy and meet the goals of the Paris agreement."

to get exclusive insight on the latest climate and environment news from the BBC's Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt, delivered to your inbox every week.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to present a "plan for victory" in the country's war with Russia to President Joe Biden during this week's visit to the US.