Hi John,
I’m Jared DeWese, Senior Communications Advisor for the Climate and Energy Program at Third Way, and we are back with our climate and energy communications cheat sheet. 2020 is already proving to be an exciting and busy year in the climate and energy space, so I’m getting help this year with a new addition to our team, T.J. Osborne, who has joined as our Press Coordinator. Let’s get started.
|
|
Republican's Foolhardy Attempt at Climate Policy
GOP leaders took a stab at addressing climate change last week. No surprise: Their platform did not align with targets laid out by the IPCC.
"They're the kid in the classroom that was called on by the teacher and now they're frantically trying to come up with an answer on the spot," said Third Way’s Josh Freed, Senior Vice President of Climate and Energy at Third Way. Their proposed suite of legislation includes planting trees, reducing plastic pollution, providing incentives for carbon capture and sequestration, and supporting precision farming. All noble goals—but without a target, what good is it?
|
|
|
Talking points:
- The GOP cannot simply dip their toes in the climate pool while continuing to ignore the science and the targets we must set to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
- Climate change is a very real crisis, with major implications. It deserves a response that matches the scale of the challenge. What House Republicans offered last week falls laughably short of accomplishing that goal.
- There are a lot of opportunities for Republicans to take a more serious approach to developing climate policy. They could start by cooperating with Democrats, who already have a suite of policy ideas that would get us to zero and improve American competitiveness.
|
|
|
The Urgency of Net-Zero
Our team at Third Way is partnering with the gang at Political Climate for a new “Path to Zero” podcast series to discuss the technologies addressing climate change and the multi-dimensional dynamics surrounding this hot-button issue. Political Climate is known for attracting some of the most notable thought leaders of the day, and “Path to Zero” will continue in that tradition.
The first episode premiered yesterday and features Josh Freed, Senior Vice President of the Climate and Energy Program at Third Way, and Dr. Jane Long, Kravis Senior Contributing Scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, who also contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in 2018.
“Path to Zero” will feature a new episode each month, exploring the best path, policies, and technologies to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The series will also explore how to develop policies to achieve that goal, such as by bringing labor to the table and examining how historically marginalized communities view this issue. Click here to subscribe, and give our first episode a listen below.
|
|
As always, let’s keep the conversation going,
Jared
Jared DeWese
Senior Communications Advisor | Third Way
202.384.1737 :: @jareddewese
T.J. Osborne
Climate and Energy Press Coordinator | Third Way
202.775.5163 :: @tjosborne_
|
|
|
|
|
