America’s Future Starts Now: Experts’ Perspectives on Climate Change in the Context of Public Perceptions of the United States

Editor’s Note: This roundup is part of the CNN Opinion series “America’s Future Starts Now,” in which people share how they have been affected by the biggest issues facing the nation and experts offer their proposed solutions. The authors of these commentaries have their own views. Read more opinion at CNN.

According to Gallup, one in three American adults have been personally affected by an extreme weather event in the past two years. Public concern about the environment is near a two-decade high, according to a Gallup poll that found 44% of Americans worry “a great deal” about it. The polling organization reports that every year the public worry over the issue is high.

Recent deadly monsoon flooding in Pakistan and tens of billions of dollars in damage in the wake of Hurricane Ian in the US serve as reminders that extreme weather is affecting people on a previously unthinkable scale.

We asked nine experts to propose solutions that would mitigate the impacts of global warming, cut greenhouse gas emissions and help us reach our net zero goals.

Climate debates in Washington often use false choices such as renewable versus fossil fuels, economy versus environment, and 100% global emissions reduction versus inaction at home. The truth is that unless energy resources are taken into account, no government or business will achieve climate goals. Let’s ask ourselves a few questions.

Multiple forms of climate leadership are needed to get the job done as long as the work is guided by science, a commitment to equity and justice, and a moral compass. The other leaders can quickly move and do things the federal government can’t do.

Jonathan Foley (@GlobalEcoGuy) is the executive director of Project Drawdown, a science-based nonprofit that leads efforts for climate solutions. The director of Drawdown Labs is Jamie Alexander.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/20/opinions/climate-change-solutions-experts-roundup/index.html

Climate Change Solutions Experts Roundup: State and Local Government Support for Climate Action, Jobs, and Justice in the U.S. and Beyond

Transportation is the biggest contributor to US greenhouse gas emissions, and the shift from gasoline to electric cars will play a key role in the fight against climate change.

Material recovered from battery recycling can be used to make new ones and reduce the need for mining. The recycling infrastructure in North America is growing. Estimates show that recycled materials could be used to meet roughly half of the demand for nickel in the US and 25% of the demand forlithium for electric vehicles in the country.

Jessica Dunn is a senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, specializing in lithium-ion battery sustainability. She is researching material circularity and reducing battery impacts.

A growing number of migrants have to cross international borders to find safety in the United States. Unfortunately, our immigration laws have yet to keep pace and need to be updated to include protections for climate migrants.

Train immigration and refugee officers to better understand how climate impacts applications for asylum or relocation, as some people qualify for refugee protection.

It is possible for citizens of countries that have been damaged by a climate disaster to stay in the US with temporary protected status.

Ama Francis is a researcher at the Columbia University Law School’s Climate change law center, and he works for the International Refugee Assistance Project.

The IRA’s investments include more than 100 programs that will invest $369 billion in climate action, clean energy jobs and environmental justice. This gives states the means to create family-sustaining jobs, improve the health of communities and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

One challenge is to channel funds efficiently, equitably and transparently from federal to state and local agencies. Governors should establish executive offices to ensure community organizations are active participants. Governors should issue executive orders enacting the Biden-Harris administration Justice40 initiative to invest in disadvantaged communities at the state level, similar to Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina while remaining transparent like Governor Steve Sisolak in Nevada on infrastructure funding.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/20/opinions/climate-change-solutions-experts-roundup/index.html

Making Clean Energy Efficient: The American Progress Towards a Sustainable Future Off Staten Island in New York and the Louisiana Coast Master Plan

Both parties have a path that they can follow. Make clean energy cheaper by using American innovation. If one technology is cheaper than the other, utilities and industries worldwide will buy the cheaper one.

Lawmakers can make it easier to build cleaner and faster. It should only take about five years to build a new transmission line, a solar field, a wind farm, or a natural gas plant. We need to cut the approval period in half.

Third, let’s think global and lead with America first. Unless other nations equip themselves with clean technology, our efforts will never address the global problem because US emissions are down from 14 to 11.

ClearPath is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC that works to reduce emissions from the energy and industrial sectors.

We are at an inflection point for the climate movement. It is easy to overlook the fact that the Inflation Reduction Act allocates $2 billion to coastal communities and tribes for adaptation to climate change. This is a lot of money for nature based infrastructure. The next step? Connecting the dots: linking shovel-ready, blue-green infrastructure projects to funding, creating more precedents for enhancing ecosystems and ensuring communities have a personal and economic stake in their implementation.

There are demonstrations that already exist. Living breakwaters, nature-based infrastructures that reduce the risk of wave damage, mitigate beach erosion and create habitat for marine species, are being created off Staten Island in New York. The largest restoration projects in US history are included in Louisiana’s 23rd coastal master plan, and are intended to mimic the natural processes that once enabled them to thrive so this critical natural infrastructure can remain.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/20/opinions/climate-change-solutions-experts-roundup/index.html

The Role of Climate Change in Urban Design and R&D. Why Puerto Rico is a coastal island vulnerable to flooding and storm surges

Pippa Brashear, is the resilience principal at SCAPE, a landscape architecture and urban design firm based in New York, New Orleans and San Francisco. She leads planning teams on large-scale infrastructure projects in the US.

While CHIPS merely authorized funding, Congress must now appropriate the money for these provisions, which will go toward advancing energy storage, fusion energy, artificial photosynthesis and carbon sequestration research, among other things.

Research and development can sound boring, but it is the essential ingredient for all innovation. All sectors of the economy have been supported by the government in funding ongoing R&D and embracing risks the private sector won’t- all for the sake of the public good.

The World Resources institute has a director of government affairs. She is an attorney and advocate who oversees WRI’s legislative work, its strategy on climate change and energy issues, and its engagement with the US administration and corporate partners on these issues.

Low-lying cities and communities currently exposed to regular coastal floods, erosion and direct wave impact are at greater risk. In Puerto Rico, for example, rising sea levels have placed 60% of its 1,225 beaches at risk of moderate to severe erosion, according to a report from Puerto Rico’s Climate Change Council. The island is in an alarming situation since it is home to more than half of the population in 44 coastal towns devastated by flooding and storm surge in the last few years.

Ernesto L. Díaz is an oceanographer. He is a consultant and an engineer at Tetra Tech, a consulting and engineering firm, and serves in the Puerto Rico Climate Change Council.

The California Clean Air and Wildfires Act and New York: Prop 1 and Its Bonds for Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs

California’s climate vote was far more contentious. Proposition 30, the “Clean Cars and Clean Air Act,” aimed to tackle two of the biggest drivers of dirty air in the state: wildfires and car exhaust. (California has some of the worst air quality in the US: Of the 30 counties with the worst air quality nationwide in 2020, 29 were in the Golden State, a recent analysis found.) Prop 30 would have increased taxes on residents making more than $2 million by 1.75 percent, with the revenue—about $3.5 billion to $5 billion annually—supporting the transition to zero-emission vehicles by providing subsidies for car buyers and building charging stations. It would have also funded wildfire risk reduction programs. The measure collected the support of a number of people, including environmental advocates, firefighters, the California Democratic Party and more.

First up, New York: Proposal 1, the “Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act,” is a wide-ranging initiative that will supply more than $4 billion in funding for projects related to “the environment, natural resources, water infrastructure, and climate change mitigation,” paid for through New York’s sale of bonds. Wetlands protection, solar and wind installations, street trees, land conservancies, carbon storage, and reducing storm water run off will all be funded by it. It is a notable step toward electrification because New York is one of the first states in the country to require all of its school buses to be zero-emission vehicles.

The measure also requires that at least 35 percent of the money benefits “disadvantaged communities,” as defined by an independent advisory committee. Joe Biden issued an executive order in 2021 stating that disadvantaged communities would receive at least 40 percent of climate-related benefits, and it is unclear how such communities would qualify.

Democratic governor Kathy Hochul and environmental groups supported Prop 1. The New York State Conservative Party opposed it, arguing that New York doesn’t need to borrow more money. With nearly 70 percent of votes counted as of Wednesday afternoon, Prop 1 passed with 69 percent of New Yorkers favoring it. Bond sales could reportedly begin as early as next year.

“New York voters deserve a shout-out for their overwhelming support of a once-in-a-generation bond measure that will protect and restore the natural resources we all depend on,” said Jessica Ottney Mahar, the Nature Conservancy’s New York policy and strategy director, in a statement. It’s a big victory for people and the environment.