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US climate leaders are focusing on electricity costs to counter attacks by the Donald Trump administration, changing the tactics behind the ongoing push to green energy.
Business leaders, government officials and civil society groups gathered in New York this week for their first Climate Week, which has been bystanders at the UN General Assembly since President Trump’s reelection.
But climate-focused nonprofits, political advocates and corporate sustainability executives focus on the weaknesses of the Trump administration.
Manish Bapna, CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the removal of clean energy incentives introduced during the Joe Biden era would increase electricity prices. “I think the American people and the political system will respond,” he added.
“The cleanest solution is the most affordable solution, and there is a big pocket book advantage in people’s lives,” says Vicki Patton General Counsel of the Environmental Defense Fund. “There is progress in the climate because of the foundations.”
Some democratic politicians said their party struggled to tell voters that the Biden administration’s landmark climate policy, the Inflation Reduction Act, would improve the job market and the wider economy. In contrast, Trump and his energy secretary, Chris Wright, have repeatedly denounced the renewable sources of high energy costs.
Former energy secretary Jennifer Granholm said he expects the message from politicians to change and that climate will be less mentioned as the subject.
“People view it as a kind of lovely thing and it’s not essential,” she said. “Affordable prices are important.”
Fossil fuel executives are trying to leverage affordability issues, particularly to support projects in states with high electricity prices.
Toby Rice, CEO of gas producer EQT, said: “This environmental movement was a bit of a free lunch. People haven’t seen the impact of what happens when they cancel the pipeline, but they’re watching right now. The energy costs for consumers are increasing.”
Some democratic politicians weigh their options. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is reassessing the Northeast supply and constitutional pipeline, which has halted following environmental concerns as a potential way to improve energy affordability.
“There was probably a realization that the ideology of conflicting natural gas pipelines doesn’t solve the problems they believe,” said Chris Treanor, executive director of Page, a coalition of US liquefied natural gas producers.
Changes in positioning are permeating the business world. The Clean Energy startup said it is expanding its pitch when trading funding and signatures.
“I’ll say the era of ‘Green Premium’ is dead,” said Thomas Sisto, CEO of XL Batteries. . We should not say that the best use of our technology is for the wind and the sun, but we also target data centers and the oil and gas industry. ”
Despite the set-off in the US that has boosted anti-green sentiment in some countries and wider geopolitical pressures, leaders of many other countries have expressed their commitment to a transition from fossil fuels.
More than 100 countries have submitted updated climate plans to the United Nations ahead of the next summit in Brazil in November, but heavy emitters such as India remain prominent, with some plans being said to be “overwhelming” because they are not progressing well enough to deal with climate change.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the international community to focus on the “right direction” of its speech to the United Nations, while Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva called on the country to step up its emissions reduction plans over COP30.
“We invested a lot in renewable energy,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said at the Climate Week event. “We knew this was good because it’s not just the climate, but because renewables are the safest, richest stable option in the long term.”
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