Hi John,

On Wednesday, the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force unveiled its recommendations to address the climate crisis. It’s an encouraging document that shows the consensus that’s growing in the Democratic Party around climate. The task force acknowledges the science stating we must get rid of all carbon pollution by 2050 at the latest through an innovative approach that uses all carbon-free technologies. We’re especially excited to see that the group’s recommendations include advanced nuclear and carbon capture and embrace performance standards to guarantee we hit our targets. 
 
“They’ve rightly called on the campaign to commit to environmental justice and create more opportunities for US workers, already key priorities in Vice President Biden’s climate agenda,” Ryan Fitzpatrick, our Director of Policy, said in a statement. “Between these recommendations, the recent House report on solutions to the climate crisis, and the House-passed infrastructure package, it’s clear that Democrats are uniting around big and urgent steps to address climate change while making America’s families and businesses healthier, stronger, and more resilient to future challenges.”

Black Americans Care About Climate Change (But It’s Complicated)
For decades, systemic racism has placed an undue environmental burden on Black communities, and they will face unequal impacts of climate change. Five months ago—before the novel coronavirus ripped through the Black community and the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor ignited social protests nationwide—we began research into how Black communities in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina feel about climate change and the policies to address it. This week, we published a comprehensive memo highlighting our key findings:

• Participants know that the climate is changing, but climate change rarely arose as a top concern; 
• Participants said few people talk to them about climate change; and 
• Clean energy resources and jobs seemed out of reach to participants.

TIME’s Justin Worland, who attended the Philadelphia focus groups, previewed some of the findings in his story for the magazine yesterday. 

The Path to Zero

Earlier this year, we began a six-month partnership with the producers and analysts at the popular podcast Political Climate to discuss the fastest, fairest path to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 at the latest. That series ended last week with an outstanding episode featuring Nathaniel Smith of the Partnership for Southern Equity, who highlighted how a clean energy transition needs to incorporate minority communities, along with our very own Senior Vice President for the Climate and Energy Program Josh Freed. In separate interviews, Nathaniel and Josh discussed with journalist Julia Pyper their views on how the United States can reach that goal amid a global health crisis. 
 
We’re happy to announce we’re continuing this partnership with Political Climate for another six months. This new season will focus on how we address the twin challenges of climate change and the economic fallout from the COVID-19 crisis. Watch for the new episode at the end of the month, featuring Third Way’s Transportation Policy Advisor Alex Laska and LinkHouston’s Oni Blair discussing how highway expansion projects can impact communities of color, using Houston’s Interstate-45 expansion project as a case study, and how a federal “Fix it First” policy can steer highway spending towards smarter projects that will get us on a path to cleaner transportation and get Americans back to work quickly.

LISTEN: The Path to a Net-Zero Economy: Where Do We Stand?