Introduction
Over the last two decades, the United States has begun to make progress on addressing climate change. Emissions are coming down—slowly at first, but now accelerating rapidly. The federal government has adopted new legislation, such as the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, that directs unprecedented funding toward technological innovation and clean energy. Many communities—from Miami to Bozeman, Denver, Fairbanks, and Houston—are now starting to address the impacts of a warming world experiencing more extreme hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and droughts. Public concerns about climate change are at an all-time high, and a growing number of state and local governments are acting, as are many community groups and corporations. The will to work toward a safer, healthier future is finally spreading beyond activists and scientists.
However, the American response to climate change remains timid and ineffective. Across the country, vulnerable communities already face the consequences of inconsistent government engagement and decades of inaction. Massive changes in industrial and agricultural processes will be necessary to combat the effects of climate change, which will be expensive and disruptive to many parts of American society. Though mitigating and managing climate change will ultimately require global cooperation, here we focus on the United States because our large economy, significant emissions, and strong engine of innovation give us unique opportunities and capabilities to enact change.
What is missing in American climate policy is a durable strategy that aligns many disparate and often halting efforts and a vision for a “fair bargain” that guides how the nation responds. To achieve this long-term change, such a strategy must unite efforts across sectors, ideological divides, and the many other forms of diversity that characterize our nation.
This Commission reflects that American diversity. To these issues we bring a varied and powerful toolkit that spans business, the arts, faith communities, environmental justice, youth activism, the natural and social sciences, Indigenous people and Indigenous Knowledge, public health, and urban design. But we are also everyday Americans who live across the country, hold different political views, and have our own beliefs and values. Over the past three years, we have learned to communicate with each other across our varied interests. We have realized that the identities that may divide us are weaker than the shared goal of sustained and meaningful climate action.
A Just, Pragmatic, and Accountable Approach to American Climate Policy
Ambitious and durable action on climate change must be woven into the political and social fabric of the country. Many previous reports have detailed the intricacies of climate science and the nuances of policy-making. Our purpose here is not to repeat their excellent scholarship. Instead, our report integrates this previous work to build a whole-of-society climate strategy that can weather shifting political environments.
We aim to build a roadmap for a climate response that is just, pragmatic, and accountable. By just, we mean a strategy that acknowledges the existing inequities in this country and chooses climate action that reduces, not exacerbates, them. Justice is not one-dimensional and must recognize social, economic, environmental, racial, and intergenerational outcomes. By pragmatic, we mean to include practical considerations such as collective engagement, time, effort, cost, and political feasibility. By accountable, we mean actions that are well-defined, measurable, credible, and transparent.
Justice and pragmatism in climate action have long been perceived as opposing priorities. We firmly reject this assumption. In preparing Forging Climate Solutions, we have learned of many examples that demonstrate how incorporating justice into policy actions enhances cost-effectiveness and accountability. When justice and pragmatism are not aligned, we hold that considering justice first creates opportunities for practical and responsible action.
In this report, we adopt a comprehensive interpretation of environmental justice. Environmental justice encompasses not only individuals residing in heavily polluted areas or those anticipated to face the most severe consequences of climate change, but also communities reliant on declining legacy industries for their economic livelihoods. While the immediate interests of these communities may not always align, all of them stand to gain from a climate strategy that prevents the exacerbation of existing inequities and promotes health and economic well-being. The central goal of our work is to shift away from the differences in language and approach that have created division and prevented decisive climate action, to create a future of broad and durable progress—rooted in authentic engagement, recognition of shared values, the uniqueness of different communities, and compromise. In this future, low-wage earners will benefit from clean, nonpolluting energy in their homes and cars; communities threatened by climate change will have the means to adapt safely; and children will enjoy the right to clean air, safe water, and a healthy, thriving future, complete with family-sustaining jobs from new economic opportunities.
How to Accelerate Climate Action
We propose a strategy that balances changes that are clearly affordable and widely supported, such as building new green infrastructure, with more complex changes, such as coordinating cooperation across the whole of government. Action will beget action. Investments in experimentation and learning will build efficiency and increase support across communities. In time, emissions from the United States will decline more rapidly, and the politics of climate change will become easier to manage because more of society will see tangible benefits from action. The nation’s resilience against climate impacts will grow.
At the center of this report is the idea of a fair bargain. Whole-of-society action on climate change requires compromise and the recognition of shared interests. Ultimately, changes in one sector, community, or federal agency will not be sufficient to meet the climate emergency. Therefore, any innovation offered by this report is not in individual recommendations but in strategies to join diverse communities and causes around a shared vision. To not exacerbate historical inequities, the exact nature of the bargain must be decided by all involved, including traditionally excluded and frontline communities. The fair bargain advocated in this report will yield climate action that is both more equitable and more durable politically.
Our recommendations are organized around five strategies. Each contributes critical opportunities to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis through an environmental justice lens. In creating these recommendations, we draw not only on the wide range of experiences and perspectives represented on the Commission, but also on seventy-one sounding sessions we conducted with leaders in climate communication, the private sector, environmental justice, and human and national security.