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Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and fellow members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus hold a news conference ahead of the vote on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 outside the U.S. Capitol on August 12, 2022.
Even as climate advocates push for the equitable and effective implementation of the IRA and IIJA, we also need to be thinking about our next big steps.
A reporter recently asked me what the next big piece of climate legislation would ideally include. Great question, right? With the help of my colleagues across the Climate & Energy and Clean Transportation programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists, or UCS, I’ve started a wish list!
Yes, over the past year, Congress has made unprecedented investments in our climate future. The largest of these investments has been the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes hundreds of billions of dollars in funding for clean energy, though the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, or Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act (IIJA) also includes funding for building climate resilience. Those investments were hard won and are already starting to benefit the U.S. economy and the nation’s clean energy infrastructure, particularly in Southeast states and GOP congressional districts.
The U.S. is in a critical moment when it comes to the preservation and implementation of these two historic bills because, while imperfect and insufficient on their own, they are central to meeting our country’s climate goals of reducing national emissions by at least 50-52% by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050. They are also under a barrage of attacks, even as people across the country are enduring a brutal summer of heat, wildfires, smoke, and flooding. But if this Danger Season has shown us anything, it’s that we remain unprepared for the types of hazards that come along with a warming world.
And so even as UCS and other climate advocates push for the equitable and effective implementation of the IRA and IIJA, we also need to be thinking about our next big steps: Steps that can fill the gaps that still remain; steps that address the need to build climate resilience head on; steps that go beyond U.S. borders; and steps that align our systems and infrastructure with the realities of climate change.
When it comes to determining whether we’ll be able to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, we’re in a make-or-break decade. Cutting heat-trapping emissions sharply and building true climate resilience as a nation and fostering the growth of such climate action around the world will require a strong implementation of both the IRA and IIJA as well as additional, transformative financial, policy, and structural investments. So, while it’s critical to make the most of the IRA and IIJA by ensuring they withstand partisan attacks and by implementing the hell out of them, it’s also important to think big about what comes next.
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A reporter recently asked me what the next big piece of climate legislation would ideally include. Great question, right? With the help of my colleagues across the Climate & Energy and Clean Transportation programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists, or UCS, I’ve started a wish list!
Yes, over the past year, Congress has made unprecedented investments in our climate future. The largest of these investments has been the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes hundreds of billions of dollars in funding for clean energy, though the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, or Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act (IIJA) also includes funding for building climate resilience. Those investments were hard won and are already starting to benefit the U.S. economy and the nation’s clean energy infrastructure, particularly in Southeast states and GOP congressional districts.
The U.S. is in a critical moment when it comes to the preservation and implementation of these two historic bills because, while imperfect and insufficient on their own, they are central to meeting our country’s climate goals of reducing national emissions by at least 50-52% by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050. They are also under a barrage of attacks, even as people across the country are enduring a brutal summer of heat, wildfires, smoke, and flooding. But if this Danger Season has shown us anything, it’s that we remain unprepared for the types of hazards that come along with a warming world.
And so even as UCS and other climate advocates push for the equitable and effective implementation of the IRA and IIJA, we also need to be thinking about our next big steps: Steps that can fill the gaps that still remain; steps that address the need to build climate resilience head on; steps that go beyond U.S. borders; and steps that align our systems and infrastructure with the realities of climate change.
When it comes to determining whether we’ll be able to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, we’re in a make-or-break decade. Cutting heat-trapping emissions sharply and building true climate resilience as a nation and fostering the growth of such climate action around the world will require a strong implementation of both the IRA and IIJA as well as additional, transformative financial, policy, and structural investments. So, while it’s critical to make the most of the IRA and IIJA by ensuring they withstand partisan attacks and by implementing the hell out of them, it’s also important to think big about what comes next.
A reporter recently asked me what the next big piece of climate legislation would ideally include. Great question, right? With the help of my colleagues across the Climate & Energy and Clean Transportation programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists, or UCS, I’ve started a wish list!
Yes, over the past year, Congress has made unprecedented investments in our climate future. The largest of these investments has been the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes hundreds of billions of dollars in funding for clean energy, though the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, or Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act (IIJA) also includes funding for building climate resilience. Those investments were hard won and are already starting to benefit the U.S. economy and the nation’s clean energy infrastructure, particularly in Southeast states and GOP congressional districts.
The U.S. is in a critical moment when it comes to the preservation and implementation of these two historic bills because, while imperfect and insufficient on their own, they are central to meeting our country’s climate goals of reducing national emissions by at least 50-52% by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050. They are also under a barrage of attacks, even as people across the country are enduring a brutal summer of heat, wildfires, smoke, and flooding. But if this Danger Season has shown us anything, it’s that we remain unprepared for the types of hazards that come along with a warming world.
And so even as UCS and other climate advocates push for the equitable and effective implementation of the IRA and IIJA, we also need to be thinking about our next big steps: Steps that can fill the gaps that still remain; steps that address the need to build climate resilience head on; steps that go beyond U.S. borders; and steps that align our systems and infrastructure with the realities of climate change.
When it comes to determining whether we’ll be able to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, we’re in a make-or-break decade. Cutting heat-trapping emissions sharply and building true climate resilience as a nation and fostering the growth of such climate action around the world will require a strong implementation of both the IRA and IIJA as well as additional, transformative financial, policy, and structural investments. So, while it’s critical to make the most of the IRA and IIJA by ensuring they withstand partisan attacks and by implementing the hell out of them, it’s also important to think big about what comes next.