Donald Trump has described various elements of the climate change effort in the following way:
- Climate change: “a big hoax”
- Biden administration’s climate policies: a “green new scam.”
- Oil and Gas: “drill, baby, drill” and he has called oil “liquid gold”
- Wind: “I hate wind” and he has said that he would stop all work on offshore wind “on day one.”
Take solace: Trump’s rhetoric is habitually over the top and he doesn’t always follow through on his promises. Still, this will set the climate movement back. The question is how far?
The movement won’t come to a grinding halt. However, if climate change doesn’t become bipartisan, future presidents could deal a sustained blow by perpetuating Trump-style policies.
With that said, clean energy has significant momentum. Without federal support that momentum will slow, but states will continue to move it forward. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have set greenhouse gas emissions targets. Some have fostered support for sustainable aviation fuels and clean power tariffs. And despite Trump’s broad victory, a number of additional measures were approved in the recent election. In some cases, state level efforts will increase.
Businesses will also continue investing in clean energy, albeit at a more cautious pace. Proof of that exists from the first Trump term which marked significant growth in renewables. Since then, data centers have become major players and Big Tech will certainly stay the course in their quest for clean power.
Still, the election illustrates one of the strategy flaws of the climate movement: it is overly reliant on government subsidies and has focused too little attention to convincing the average voter of why they should care. Forcing people to adopt clean technology is not a good approach. The goal must be to get consumers to demand it. That approach is more challenging, but would be infinitely more effective.
Attempting to define climate change as a crisis has been a losing strategy. Human nature only considers something a crisis when it arrives on its doorstep. Notwithstanding the increase in severe weather events, climate change is simply not viewed by most as an imminent crisis.
Proof of that was evident in this election cycle. I read a multitude of articles lamenting how little climate was brought up during the campaign.
Do you know why?
Because as a political issue it’s a loser. The focus was on the “real time” issues of the economy and immigration. That could change if the climate movement was more effective with its communication strategy, but that strategy has been poorly conceived and executed.
Want to raise climate change as a political priority? Convince the average citizen that it is impacting their daily lives and costing them money today.
#inflationreductionact #climateaction #climatechnageisreal #climatepolicy #netzero #trumpwon
