U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaks on November job numbers at the Queen Theater December 4, 2020 Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
To Combat the Climate Crisis, We Need a Government-Wide Mobilization
Hopefully Biden will nominate leaders who understand the severity of the climate crisis and the environmental injustices that burden communities of color and low-income communities.
The climate crisis isn't a single issue: It's an everything issue. To solve it, we'll have to change how we get around, how we grow food, how we heat and cool our homes, how we create electricity, and much else. We'll need an economy-wide, and society-wide, transformation that will create millions of family-sustaining jobs in clean energy, energy efficiency, and more.
To achieve that economy-wide transformation, we need every part of our government working toward it, as well as a powerful movement pushing officials to be even more ambitious and inclusive. Thankfully, many of President-elect Biden's first few cabinet picks show that he understands the necessity of a whole-government approach.
Chief among them is John Kerry, who was named to the new post of special presidential envoy for climate. Kerry is a longtime climate champion who played a key role in negotiating the Paris agreement in 2015. His cabinet-level position sits in the National Security Council, which isn't known for its focus on the climate crisis. But this foreign-policy role offers Kerry, and Antony Blinken, Biden's climate-conscious pick for Secretary of State, the opportunity to mobilize the global community toward climate action.
After years of fossil-fuel boosterism by the Trump administration, they'll have their work cut out for them. As Kerry well knows, just rejoining the Paris agreement is not enough to take U.S. off the path of planetary destruction. We'll have to go well beyond those goals, and phasing out the use of coal worldwide is a good place to start. Communities from South Korea to South Africa have documented the destructive health impacts of mining and burning dirty coal while showing how clean energy will save lives and money and create millions of jobs. One key opportunity for international climate diplomacy is to share technologies and pathways to an accelerated transition to 100% clean, renewable energy.
Our own country is in the middle of a painful recession, and Biden understands that our best way out is through a green stimulus that creates millions of family-sustaining jobs in clean energy, sustainable agriculture, and cleaning up pollution in communities of color and low-income communities. And his pick for Treasury secretary, former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, will be a central part of making such a plan reality. Yellen can help ensure that we spend public money to create jobs that revitalize our communities and stave off climate catastrophe. And luckily, she's long been a proponent of using financial tools to address the risk climate change poses to this country and our economy.
Yellen's engagement on the climate can--and must--go beyond a green stimulus. After all, as Treasury Secretary, she will have profound influence over government spending, development finance, and risk management in our financial sector. Climate change is one of the greatest risks to our economy, but the largest U.S. financial institutions are accelerating the crisis by pouring more money into fossil fuels. Yellen and other financial regulators in the Biden administration have the power to carry out a managed decline of fossil fuels, and to ensure that financial institutions zero out their climate impact.
Biden still has many roles to fill in his administration, including the heads of the EPA, Department of the Interior, and the Department of Energy. And I hope that for each one, he'll nominate a leader who understands the severity of the climate crisis and the environmental injustices that burden communities of color and low-income communities. Good policy starts with good people--and good movements that push them to make the most of the power voters have granted them.
We are at a crossroads
This country and this world are at a monumental crossroads. In a few short weeks, US voters will have an opportunity to beat back the forces of fascism and confront the billionaires who are rigging the economy, our media system, and our democracy, making it increasingly impossible for ordinary people to get by. We’re not just talking about the election. We’re talking about what must be done once these fascist elements are vanquished from power. We need a bolder set of solutions than what either major party has so far been willing to offer and a working-class movement ready to fight like hell for it. Trump didn't emerge from nowhere. The conditions that fueled MAGA authoritarianism were created by decades of radical neoliberal economic policies and a corrupt political system dominated by corporate interests. They slashed taxes on the super-rich, promising that the benefits would trickle down. They said giveaways to the corporate titans would make life more affordable for the rest of us. It was all bullshit. And when a bitter, betrayed populace searches for someone to blame, right-wing demagogues have little trouble finding scapegoats. People know when they're being lied to, but you won't hear any of this from the corporate media. Only independent journalism—powered and funded by people who believe in building a better world—can deliver truly trustworthy daily news. Our Fall Campaign is underway, and we need your help. To power our newsroom through the rest of the year, we need to raise $125,000 by midnight on October 31. So if you share our vision, please contribute whatever you can to sustain our work. |
The climate crisis isn't a single issue: It's an everything issue. To solve it, we'll have to change how we get around, how we grow food, how we heat and cool our homes, how we create electricity, and much else. We'll need an economy-wide, and society-wide, transformation that will create millions of family-sustaining jobs in clean energy, energy efficiency, and more.
To achieve that economy-wide transformation, we need every part of our government working toward it, as well as a powerful movement pushing officials to be even more ambitious and inclusive. Thankfully, many of President-elect Biden's first few cabinet picks show that he understands the necessity of a whole-government approach.
Chief among them is John Kerry, who was named to the new post of special presidential envoy for climate. Kerry is a longtime climate champion who played a key role in negotiating the Paris agreement in 2015. His cabinet-level position sits in the National Security Council, which isn't known for its focus on the climate crisis. But this foreign-policy role offers Kerry, and Antony Blinken, Biden's climate-conscious pick for Secretary of State, the opportunity to mobilize the global community toward climate action.
After years of fossil-fuel boosterism by the Trump administration, they'll have their work cut out for them. As Kerry well knows, just rejoining the Paris agreement is not enough to take U.S. off the path of planetary destruction. We'll have to go well beyond those goals, and phasing out the use of coal worldwide is a good place to start. Communities from South Korea to South Africa have documented the destructive health impacts of mining and burning dirty coal while showing how clean energy will save lives and money and create millions of jobs. One key opportunity for international climate diplomacy is to share technologies and pathways to an accelerated transition to 100% clean, renewable energy.
Our own country is in the middle of a painful recession, and Biden understands that our best way out is through a green stimulus that creates millions of family-sustaining jobs in clean energy, sustainable agriculture, and cleaning up pollution in communities of color and low-income communities. And his pick for Treasury secretary, former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, will be a central part of making such a plan reality. Yellen can help ensure that we spend public money to create jobs that revitalize our communities and stave off climate catastrophe. And luckily, she's long been a proponent of using financial tools to address the risk climate change poses to this country and our economy.
Yellen's engagement on the climate can--and must--go beyond a green stimulus. After all, as Treasury Secretary, she will have profound influence over government spending, development finance, and risk management in our financial sector. Climate change is one of the greatest risks to our economy, but the largest U.S. financial institutions are accelerating the crisis by pouring more money into fossil fuels. Yellen and other financial regulators in the Biden administration have the power to carry out a managed decline of fossil fuels, and to ensure that financial institutions zero out their climate impact.
Biden still has many roles to fill in his administration, including the heads of the EPA, Department of the Interior, and the Department of Energy. And I hope that for each one, he'll nominate a leader who understands the severity of the climate crisis and the environmental injustices that burden communities of color and low-income communities. Good policy starts with good people--and good movements that push them to make the most of the power voters have granted them.
The climate crisis isn't a single issue: It's an everything issue. To solve it, we'll have to change how we get around, how we grow food, how we heat and cool our homes, how we create electricity, and much else. We'll need an economy-wide, and society-wide, transformation that will create millions of family-sustaining jobs in clean energy, energy efficiency, and more.
To achieve that economy-wide transformation, we need every part of our government working toward it, as well as a powerful movement pushing officials to be even more ambitious and inclusive. Thankfully, many of President-elect Biden's first few cabinet picks show that he understands the necessity of a whole-government approach.
Chief among them is John Kerry, who was named to the new post of special presidential envoy for climate. Kerry is a longtime climate champion who played a key role in negotiating the Paris agreement in 2015. His cabinet-level position sits in the National Security Council, which isn't known for its focus on the climate crisis. But this foreign-policy role offers Kerry, and Antony Blinken, Biden's climate-conscious pick for Secretary of State, the opportunity to mobilize the global community toward climate action.
After years of fossil-fuel boosterism by the Trump administration, they'll have their work cut out for them. As Kerry well knows, just rejoining the Paris agreement is not enough to take U.S. off the path of planetary destruction. We'll have to go well beyond those goals, and phasing out the use of coal worldwide is a good place to start. Communities from South Korea to South Africa have documented the destructive health impacts of mining and burning dirty coal while showing how clean energy will save lives and money and create millions of jobs. One key opportunity for international climate diplomacy is to share technologies and pathways to an accelerated transition to 100% clean, renewable energy.
Our own country is in the middle of a painful recession, and Biden understands that our best way out is through a green stimulus that creates millions of family-sustaining jobs in clean energy, sustainable agriculture, and cleaning up pollution in communities of color and low-income communities. And his pick for Treasury secretary, former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, will be a central part of making such a plan reality. Yellen can help ensure that we spend public money to create jobs that revitalize our communities and stave off climate catastrophe. And luckily, she's long been a proponent of using financial tools to address the risk climate change poses to this country and our economy.
Yellen's engagement on the climate can--and must--go beyond a green stimulus. After all, as Treasury Secretary, she will have profound influence over government spending, development finance, and risk management in our financial sector. Climate change is one of the greatest risks to our economy, but the largest U.S. financial institutions are accelerating the crisis by pouring more money into fossil fuels. Yellen and other financial regulators in the Biden administration have the power to carry out a managed decline of fossil fuels, and to ensure that financial institutions zero out their climate impact.
Biden still has many roles to fill in his administration, including the heads of the EPA, Department of the Interior, and the Department of Energy. And I hope that for each one, he'll nominate a leader who understands the severity of the climate crisis and the environmental injustices that burden communities of color and low-income communities. Good policy starts with good people--and good movements that push them to make the most of the power voters have granted them.