After the US Election, Climate Interactive Is Fighting for Climate Protection with More Vigor Than Ever

By Elizabeth Sawin
November 14, 2016

The political landscape in the US has shifted with this week’s election, but the biophysics of the planet and the carbon math of climate protection haven’t changed. We remain determined to provide accessible, real-time tools and analysis that help people understand and act on climate and commit ourselves to the inner and outer work of addressing injustice in our change efforts.

Our team at COP-22 is right now training new users in our tools, and sharing our analysis of current events. We’ll be updating the Climate Scoreboard analysis of “mid-century strategies” for 2050 emissions. We have, in partnership with Climate Advisors, released new analysis on the “balance year” required to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C.

At the COP, Climate Interactive Co-Director Andrew Jones was ready to help journalists around the world report on what the implications will be if the US is unable to deliver on its global climate commitments. (Read the full article in the Washington Post.)

Moving forward, doing the climate math and sharing the results with products like the Climate Scoreboard will continue to be a priority. Countries around the world are, right now, making plans for a low carbon future. Tracking their contributions, showing where more ambition is needed, and shining an analytic light on the impacts of policy decisions in the US will matter more than ever.

In our Multisolving work we remain committed to the idea that progress on climate is inextricably linked with progress on human rights, equity, and justice in the US and around the world. We recognize that much climate momentum is motivated by the desire of people to live in clean, healthy, safe, equitable, vibrant neighborhoods. This strong motivation for investments that protect the climate is unchanged by the election results, and we will continue to help increase that momentum. We will continue to partner with community-based organizations focused on equity, justice, and sustainability with the intent that all people impacted by infrastructure decisions have a voice in them.

Finally, systems thinking teaches that mindsets, beliefs and cultural attitudes shape systemic structures, give rise to system behaviors, and are leverage points for change. The beliefs and attitudes that were displayed in this election will likely limit the United State’s ability to make progress on climate, because of president elect Trump’s policy agenda itself and because these attitudes and beliefs impact how we work, live, and make decisions together at all levels. We believe that progress on climate will require an unflinching examination of racism, sexism, and the fear of the ‘other’ in our society. We recommit ourselves to our own inner work as individuals, our joint work as a team, and our public work in the world to move away from and stand up to injustice in its many forms.