Joe Biden

China has been working on its green credentials since 2013 and become a front runner in clean energy technology. For the US to reestablish itself as a climate leader, it needs emissions targets that are more ambitious than those Obama envisaged.

If America wants to repair its regional alliances, it must first show it can deal with Beijing from a position of strength. Small and medium-sized nations need assurances they won’t be used merely as a tool to counter China, to be discarded the moment it suits the US.

The US likes to claim it is the world’s greatest democracy and engine of wealth – gospels which must be spread around the world. Current news headlines say otherwise.

Instead of understanding Beijing on its own terms, the basis for peaceful coexistence, US officials are talking up a new cold war and risking conflict.

Trump’s assault on the diplomatic service – and on the exercise of US diplomatic finesse across the world – showed crass ignorance of the value of diplomacy and how strongly diplomatic leadership contributed to America’s soft power.

There is speculation over whether the Quad can become a united, Nato-like bloc when its members are so dependent on China economically and India might be its Achilles’ heel. But if Biden succeeds in expanding alliances, the strategy might succeed.

While a sharper rise in inflation could happen, it is of secondary importance and would be easier to manage than dealing with the consequences of another weak recovery. If there was ever a time for ‘shock and awe’ fiscal stimulus, it is now.

Anti-China sentiment has to be put aside at virtual meeting of world’s most industrialised nations in the grip of crippling pandemic, economic grief and climate crisis.

Some of the world’s largest investment asset managers are starting to punish firms deemed environmentally irresponsible, a sign that humanity is realising that we are all in this together

Corruption and illicit trade are threat multipliers that ripple across borders and imperil democratic freedoms and institutions. By advancing a national security strategy to tackle these two problems, Biden can work with allies and through public-private partnerships internationally.

Following the acquittal of Donald Trump, the Grand Old Party has to now abandon divisive policies and return to the centre-right in mainstream American political life

Establishing a global standard for companies to describe how their business is affected by climate change would allow investors to allocate their capital more efficiently. Asian regulators have already taken steps towards this.