Copenhagen Consensus President Bjorn Lomborg joins ‘Varney & Co.’ to challenge the ‘green China’ narrative, cite hurricane data showing no surge and argue next-gen nuclear is key to climate solutions.

Many in the West gaze in awe at China’s apparent dominance in green energy.

“China is becoming a green superpower,” read a BBC headline last month.

“China’s Green Triumph,” trumpeted The New York Times.

China is indeed churning out solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and batteries that flood global markets — proof, advocates say, of an inevitable green transition.

Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue, Bjorn Lomborg, President of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre in Denmark, examined how increasing and consistent electricity demand of AI data centres can be met using carbon-free energy sources, especially nuclear energy.

Congress, in a rare bipartisan effort, has reaffirmed America’s commitment as a generous donor abroad. The recently passed National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2026 allocates roughly $50 billion in base funding. That’s less than prior levels but far exceeds the deepest cuts proposed by the White House. The result underscores that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seek to safeguard America’s influence in fostering a safer, more prosperous world through targeted international engagement.

Declining climate alarmism across the world opens the way for sensible policies to encourage economic growth and clean energy innovation

A new pragmatism is infusing the climate debate in the West, driven by voters weary of soaring energy bills and annoyed by increasingly hysterical and patronizing climate rhetoric. From Washington to Westminster, Berlin to Canberra, the political class is confronting a simple truth: aggressive net-zero mandates are delivering present economic pain for unmeasurable and far-off climate gain.

What a difference a single year makes. The once-dominant push to radically reshape society in hopes of averting climate catastrophe has collapsed. Look at Davos, the talkfest long dominated by climate advocacy. That consensus has been all but abandoned by its once strongest proponents.

The IPCC’s rigor keeps a lid on alarmism. The U.S. is needed to make sure that doesn’t change.

An outspoken global actor in the grand theater of climate policy, New York has long insisted the transition to green energy would be cheap and straightforward. 

As 2026 begins, many of us have been taking stock of the year behind us and setting intentions for the one ahead.

For the world’s poorest, this was the year when the United Nations’ over-ambitious plan to solve every pressing global problem fell apart.

We should vow to be smarter, and do better, this year.