The Most Important Action You Can Take to Combat Climate Change is Also the Easiest

by Hillary V.

You don’t need to read this entire post to get to the click-baity answer to the proposition of the title: the most important action you can take to combat climate change is to VOTE. 

You are likely getting this message from all fronts these days, and it will only increase over the next 20 days until the November 2020 election. But truly, if you are worried about climate change and what we are doing to combat it, the most important thing you can do is to vote for leaders at every governmental level that understands the problem and are committed to doing something about it. The great thing is that we already know how to solve climate change. We now just need the political will to make it happen.

Here are just a few things that elected officials can do to combat/fix the climate crisis:

Federal Level:

1. Incentivize carbon capture, use, and storage by expanding tax credits and putting a price on carbon, such as through the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act advocated for by the Citizens Climate Lobby.
2. Incentivize clean energy like solar and wind through tax credits.
3. End subsidies for the fossil fuel industry and supporting communities that rely on those industries by increasing green and climate-friendly jobs. 
4. Improve energy efficiency through stronger federal energy efficiency standards in appliances, cars, and buildings.

State Level:

1. Create greenhouse emission targets and goals and direct state-level policymakers from agricultural, economic, environmental, transportation, health, and housing agencies to meet those goals.
2. Establish natural disaster response plans to address extreme weather events and other climate-related natural disasters.
3. Direct funds to help workers in fossil fuel industries transition to green and climate-friendly jobs. 
4. Establish cap-and-trade or climate pricing schemes within a state.

Please find here resources on state-level initiatives to combat climate change.

Local Level:

1. Decrease transportation-related greenhouse emissions by increasing access to public transportation and constructing and maintaining walkways, bike lanes, and bike parking spaces.
2. Utilize urban green infrastructure projects through parks, rooftop gardens, green walls, and white/cool roofs.
3. Require composting by large food waste generators such as grocery stores, restaurants, schools, stadiums, and food manufacturers.
4. Incentivize and support regenerative agricultural practices through local taxes and increase funding for land or conservation easements.

Find information here on the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy.

Individuals should do what they can to live a sustainable life and should adopt practices that can limit greenhouse gasses, such as not eating meat, composting your food, using fuel-efficient transportation, and transitioning your home to solar or wind power. However, climate change is the ultimate collective action problem, and without sweeping changes from government, we will not effectively fight this battle.

This blog will explore these strategies and ideas in more depth over the next few months, so stay tuned. Just know that you can and should use your voice now to help push political movement towards serious action to combat climate change. 

Stay tuned for information on how to reach out to your elected officials about climate change in next weeks blog post.

Actionable Tip: Vote in the November 3rd, 2020 election.

Regardless of political ideology, public servants at every level have a responsibility to address, combat, and prepare for climate change, and you absolutely have a right to demand that they take action. In every election we vote in, climate change should be a major talking point and priority for candidates because we simply cannot wait to address this problem. Please click here for information on how to vote in your state.