As chief of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President George H.W. Bush, William Reilly helped set in motion both global climate diplomacy and a critical law — the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 — that prevents an estimated 370,000 pollution-related premature deaths a year. On the eve of November’s United Nations negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland, Reilly looked back at the birth of global climate debates and what their future may bring. The transcript has been edited for length. Climate negotiations really started in the 1980s, before the UN Framework Convention. What were those early days like? I had a long meeting with the German chancellor, Helmut Kohl. It turned out to be weeks before the Berlin Wall fell [on Nov. 9, 1989]. I was really blown away. At the end of the meeting, Kohl stood up. He looked me straight in the eye, and he said, “On […]