The Daily: What’s Next for the Climate Movement?

July 1, 2022

Welcome to the weekend. It was a big week for the climate movement — in its latest major ruling, the Supreme Court made it harder for America to fight the climate crisis.

Yesterday's decision limits the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate carbon emissions from power plants — which, as you heard on the show, is a blow to the Biden administration's commitment to reduce emissions by 2030. So we wanted to ask someone with experience in both climate action and federal policymaking: Where does the climate movement go next?

Below, Al Gore, the former vice president turned climate activist, shares his thoughts. Then, we share some of the highlights from our recent climate coverage on the show and from The New York Times climate conference, happening now in London.

The big idea: Where does the climate movement go next?

By Lauren Jackson and Michael Simon Johnson

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Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, in 2019.Fabrice Coffrini/AFP, via Getty Images

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

The Supreme Court just ruled against the Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory power, making it harder for the U.S. to meet its climate commitments by 2030. What should be done now to ensure federal progress on emissions reduction?

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While this ruling curtails some of the E.P.A.'s authority, it does not mean we are out of options to address the climate crisis. There is more we can — and must — do. It is more important than ever for Congress to take action on this issue.

But the climate crisis is not a challenge that only the federal government must work to address. West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency was a case brought against the federal government by states in which the fossil fuel lobby still maintains significant power. The climate movement has important work to do at the federal level, but we can't ignore how important states and local governments are in driving and blocking climate progress.

In light of the ruling, where should the energy of the climate movement be focused next?

We need to encourage state and local governments to redouble their efforts to reduce emissions, and we also need to see the private sector step up and match their climate pledges with action. They played a critical role in advancing progress on the climate crisis when action was stalled under the previous administration.

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This decade is critical for climate action and we need all hands on deck to address this crisis. That means calling on Congress to pass ambitious climate legislation this summer. It also means we need to make sure that anyone who is frustrated with the slow pace of climate action gets out to vote in this year's midterm election.

You've written, "To address the climate crisis, we must address the democracy crisis." Is American democracy in crisis? How do you propose we surmount congressional gridlock that obstructs climate action?

We are facing a crisis of American democracy, one that stretches far beyond our ability to confront the climate crisis. The balance of power in our country has been distorted and has shifted away from the people and toward corporations and special interests. Fossil fuel companies and their allies have undermined progress on the climate crisis for decades. In recent years, we've seen the same kind of influence-peddling stall progress on everything from gun violence prevention to civil rights.

In order to address this crisis, we must not only prioritize reforms that will place power back in the hands of the people, but we must also reconcile the distortion of our media landscape caused by a similar imbalance in power.

The escalating climate crisis will force Americans to ask difficult questions like "Which towns are worth saving?" What are the most significant sacrifices you anticipate citizens will have to make in the coming years?

Unfortunately, our most significant sacrifices will not be choices we make, but consequences we must deal with because of our failure to act in time to avoid the impacts of the climate crisis. Communities will continue to be displaced by rising sea levels, extreme weather events, wildfires and more.

However, action to solve the climate crisis needn't be a matter of sacrifice. On the contrary, climate action can benefit our communities. Smart investments in energy efficiency, for example, can create jobs (that by their very nature can't be outsourced) and greatly reduce energy costs.

The war in Ukraine has led President Biden to retreat on his ambitious climate commitments. How significant has the war been for global climate action?

The United States and every other country around the world has reached a critical inflection point on the climate crisis, which certainly raises the risk of backsliding, though I believe history will view this as an accelerant on our transition away from fossil fuels.

This is a war enabled by our continued dependence on fossil fuels. The unfortunate reality of the market for these global commodities is that despite embargoes on Russian oil and gas (which I strongly support), Putin will continue to profit from our global addiction to these sources of energy. It is only by reducing the market for these products that we will be able to undermine his power. We need more solar and wind and electric vehicles and everything else that will enable us to get off fossil fuels for good.

This should be a moment of global epiphany, not moral cowardice. It is clear that our reliance on fossil fuels poses a significant and ongoing threat to democracy around the world. We must embrace the shift away from fossil fuels and refuse to allow democracy to be held hostage by petrostates like Russia.

You can read the full interview here.

LISTEN TO OUR EPISODE ABOUT THE RULING:

Brian Snyder/Reuters

The Supreme Court Case That Could Doom U.S. Climate Goals

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By Sabrina Tavernise, Michael Simon Johnson, Carlos Prieto, Clare Toeniskoetter, Asthaa Chaturvedi, M.J. Davis Lin, Marion Lozano, Dan Powell and Chris Wood

From The Daily team: The latest climate news

Temperatures in San Antonio reached the 100-degree mark for a record number of days in June, as Texas and much of the central U.S. sweltered through a heat wave.Eric Gay/Associated Press

If you're interested in learning more about some of the topics covered by Mr. Gore, we made a playlist of our latest climate coverage for you to listen to.

And to hear more about how cities can power the green transition, listen to this conversation between Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and Somini Sengupta, our international climate reporter. In a conversation at The Times's climate conference in London this week, Mr. Khan said cities "can't wait for the national cavalries to arrive" in tackling the crisis.

For you audio nerds, the conference also featured a 4-D immersive sound experience — filled with the sounds of species lost and landscapes irrevocably altered in the climate crisis. "This is a journey into climate grief, one that invites listeners to engage with the crisis in a new way," said Alice Aedy, co-founder of Earthrise Studio.

You can read more about the installation and its artist, William Russell of Monom studio in Berlin, here.

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