Climate Change and Climate Action

It’s one thing to say you take the threat of climate change seriously. It’s another to create a new cabinet-level post for a “climate envoy,” give it to John Kerry, and save him a seat on your National Security Council. That’s the plan Joe Biden laid out this week. What difference will it make?

The 2020 US elections delivered some notable state and city-level wins for clean energy across the United States, notably in Nevada, Colorado, and Ohio. However, even in states that delivered victories for clean energy, utilities will still play a key role in driving—or stalling—the clean energy transition. The complex history of clean energy policy in each of these states points to the divergent paths both cities and states can take to decarbonize and the importance of striking a delicate balance between government, utilities, and public interests.

Due to both her experience and her story, Kamala Devi Harris, alongside President-elect Joe Biden, provides an important new symbol of what the United States stands for in the world and could usher in a new era for US-Caribbean relations.

In their victory speeches this weekend, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris declared that combating climate change will be one of their administration’s top priorities, alongside containing COVID-19, rebuilding the US economy, rooting out systemic racism, and bridging America’s political divides. Let’s zoom in on what’s coming next on climate.

The pandemic illustrated the critical role for strong national leadership in combating a crisis and what happens when countries—including the United States—fail to cooperate on a multilateral level to find a solution.

As the nation braces for the presidential election next week, there’s arguably no issue beyond the COVID-19 crisis for which the stakes are higher than climate change policy.