If the U.S. wants to reach “tipping points” in green energy technologies before climate change gets out of control, it would do well to take a page from the Asian playbook on industrial policy. That is one of the insights shared by Davos-goers at the World Economic Forum this week. Business should stop seeing government as an obstacle, and see it as the catalyst for required systemic change.
Depending on which perspective one takes, America has had an industrial policy since Alexander Hamilton invested half a million dollars in American manufacturing in 1791 instead of relying on imports from Great Britain. Or, critics might say it has never had an industrial policy—at least not one like South Korea, Japan, and the Asian tigers had when they crafted “import substitution” after the Second World War.
