The Midterms and Implications for the Climate

Show Notes

This Week's Reason for Hope

The Australian federal government has set a goal to prevent any new extinctions of Australian wildlife

It's first time a federal government has announced a zero extinctions target for the country’s plants and animals

The goal forms part of a 10-year plan to improve the trajectory of 110 species and 20 places and protect an additional 50m hectares of land and sea area by 2027

The issue is however that the same minister just approved a fossil fuel powered nitrogen fertilizer plant in the northwest of Australia, right beside Australia’s largest gas field

Sources

Australia Aims to Cut Its High Rate of Species Extinctions to Zero - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Australia backs $2.9 billion urea plant with low-cost finance | Reuters

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Main Topic

American's views on climate

Climate as election issue - Pew Research poll ranked climate 13 out of 15 as "very important" to their vote

General perceptions

64% “somewhat worried” and (30%) “very worried” about climate change
67% “rarely” or “never” discuss global warming w/ family or friends

A few races to watch

Senate

Nevada - Senator Catherine Cortez-Masto, a climate advocate, is being challenged by Republican who opposed investigation into whether Exxon-Mobil made fraudulent statements about climate change and has also received support from PAC with ties to oil and gas industry
Georgia - Senator Raphel Warnock, a climate advocate, is in close raise with Republican challenger who has spoken out against the Inflation Reduction Act and made bizarre statements about climate change

Current U.S. climate commitments

Paris pledge – 50-52% cut by 2030, still not in-line with limiting warming to 1.5°C

Current policies (including Inflation Reduction Act) – 40% cut by 2030, well beyond 1.5°C

Options for closing emissions gap

Updating code to require more efficient buildings

Further incentivizing management of forests and agriculture to maximize carbon sequestration

Executive actions in variety of areas

Other

Climate Power is investing 10 million in ad campaign in battleground states

Resources for learning whether candidates are pro-climate or not

‍Climate Power

League of Conservation Voters Scorecard (lcv.org)