Talk Climate With Candidates

For Green Energy Times - October-November, 2024 edition, and the Concord Monitor on October 9, 2024.

Talk Climate with Candidates

This year’s presidential election is the last one that matters for the goal of holding global warming to +1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels. Limits determined by physics will be breached if the U.S. and the world fail to make significant policy changes before the next U.S. presidential election. We cannot undo this breach later, and every 0.1˚C more warming brings significantly more damages and losses, some of which are irreversible at any price.

The two leading presidential candidates promise very different climate futures: Donald Trump plans to ignore climate pollution, and Kamala Harris plans to reduce it. For a climate scientist’s perspective on their positions, see bit.ly/2024-presidential-candidates-on-climate. However, ambitious executive action alone cannot achieve important science-based goals, so congressional and down-ballot outcomes also matter. You can use your vote and your voice to help. Start by talking with all the candidates to make reducing climate pollution a top-level, nonpartisan issue.

There are many ways to have climate conversations with candidates. Call or email your state legislative, gubernatorial, and congressional candidates. Meet them at events and talk with them at the polling station on your way in to vote. If you get a phone call from a pollster or candidate’s office, don’t hang up! Use the opportunity to tell them addressing climate change from fossil fuel pollution is important to you. Learn where each candidate stands, then spread the word about leaders and laggards.

What makes for a good discussion? Be polite. Connect over shared values such as love of family, nature, or the importance of a strong economy. Express your concern about climate change, then probe gently to learn their position:

1. Do they accept the scientific consensus about the threat and costs of global warming from fossil fuel pollution?

2. Do they agree policy changes are necessary at the state and federal levels to achieve important science-based climate goals?

3. If elected, what will they do to address the problem?

In settings where you only have time for one question, ask, “Do you agree that policy changes are necessary to reduce climate pollution from fossil fuels to meet science-based targets for a relatively safe future, and if so, what will you do if elected?”

Some candidates agree with experts and may respond with, “Yes, and En-ROADS offers insight.” When you hear that, be appreciative and supportive, and tell your friends and family you’ve found a climate champion!

Some candidates have less satisfactory responses.

Refer those who reject basic climate science to the latest National Climate Assessment (nca2023.globalchange.gov). This report is required from George Bush’s Global Change Research Act of 1990.  It is produced for policymakers by climate scientists from NASA, NOAA, the EPA, DOE, and DOD, and is reviewed by the National Academy of Science. Our understanding of global warming from human activities comes from the evidence-based conclusions of hundreds of scientific organizations worldwide (climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus) and is disputed by none.

For candidates who believe no policy changes are required, suggest they explore MIT's En-ROADS climate policy simulator (bit.ly/2024-en-roads-iam), which indicates we are on track for a +3.3˚C warmer future this century from the current global policy mix. Policies can be evaluated individually and in combinations to see their effects on global energy, the economy, climate, biodiversity, sea level rise, and human health.

If you hear, “The market should pick the winners and losers” or, “We need all-of-the-above energy options,” say you might agree with that if the market included the costs of pollution in the price of fossil fuels, but since it doesn't, we are getting too much pollution and the transition to a clean energy economy is too slow.

If their ideas to reduce pollution seem insufficient, ask if they agree with science-based greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. Express the responsibility you feel our generation has to meet this challenge, and ask them to explore En-ROADS. The U.S. has committed to reducing greenhouse gas pollution 50% by 2030 from 2005 levels, and to net-zero by 2050. These goals require effective and equitable climate policies, such as a federal cash-back carbon pollution fee on fossil fuel production (bit.ly/carbon-price-gap-presentation).

What can discussing your concerns about climate change with candidates accomplish? In a town hall setting, it normalizes talking about the issue in public and helps others realize they care about the problem. In any setting, it shows candidates they need a plan, and prepares those who get elected to implement solutions.

We need our next leaders to act effectively. Our planet’s surface has warmed +1.24˚C since 1900 (bit.ly/2024-is-15-still-possible), and the pace of warming is now +0.1˚C every three or four years (Hansen et al. 2023: Global warming in the pipeline). It takes decades for the effects of CO2 emissions to be reflected in global temperatures, so some future warming is already locked in (IPCC AR6 WG1 Figure 2.10).

We have one last chance to hold warming to 1.5°C. You can help the world retain a relatively safe climate future for yourself, your children, or your grandchildren, protect our winters and global biodiversity, and secure the future of the U.S. as an economic leader for the rest of this century. Please talk with candidates about climate change and make informed choices when you vote.

John Gage is the New Hampshire State Coordinator for Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a national, nonpartisan, grassroots climate solutions organization.