Data for Climate Progress 11.25.2020 - The Path Forward
Welcome back to the Data for Climate Progress Newsletter, your update on new research, blog posts and memes from the Data for Progress climate team: Julian Brave NoiseCat, Marcela Mulholland and Danielle Deiseroth.
What We’re Watching
Biden appointments
There’s buzz surrounding the potential appointment of Representative Deborah Haaland as the next Secretary of Interior. If appointed, Haaland would be the first Native woman to serve in this position—and as Secretary of any cabinet for that matter. Her lived experiences and policy priorities would make her an excellent ally for progressive priorities and climate policies. Julian is closely tracking the latest developments on this on Twitter. You can follow here.
Our polling shows that an overwhelming majority of voters (78 percent) support a Native American nominee for Interior Secretary.
Earlier this week, John Kerry was announced as President-Elect Biden’s Special Climate Envoy. This marks the first time there will be a position solely dedicated to tackling climate change on the National Security Council. Kerry has a promising track record of working with progressives on climate policy and we hope he keeps this momentum moving forward. We’re also keeping an eye out for the Biden team to announce a domestic-focused climate position to lead a full-scale mobilization of the federal government to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.
We’ll have more polling on this coming soon.
All signs are pointing toward Janet Yellen, a renowned economist and former Chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, being President-Elect Biden's nominee for Treasury Secretary. This appointment will have significant implications for what climate policy looks like under a Biden Administration and whether future coronavirus relief bills include funding for new clean energy projects. See here for our polling and blog on how a Yellen Treasury Department should approach climate change.
All eyes on Georgia
Whether or not Dems win the two run-off Senate races in Georgia will have significant implications for the legislative future of federal climate policy (and all other Democratic and progressive legislative priorities). Donate here to help flip these seats blue.
Stay tuned for polling on these races coming soon.
Dem in-fighting
Despite Biden winning the presidency, Democrats down the ballot struggled to expand their House majority and make gains in the Senate on Election Day. Democratic victories made in the 2018 “Blue Wave” were erased, leading some moderate Democrats in the caucus to point fingers and accuse progressives like AOC and “The Squad” for taking policy stances that weighed down Democratic candidates in more R-leaning districts. This conflict is at the heart of determining the future of the Democratic party, and DFP is doing a deep-dive into the data to help illuminate the situation. We're conducting ongoing research to help progressives shape narratives that win elections. Stay tuned.
Polling
President-elect Biden made climate change a key part of his closing message, including it alongside COVID-19, economic recovery, and racial equity as the four major crises facing America today. Now, a new Data for Progress post-election nationwide poll weighted to be representative of the 2020 electorate finds that voters want Joe Biden and the next Congress to prioritize action on the climate crisis.
70% of voters are concerned about climate change
86% of voters are concerned about air and water pollution
59% of voters say climate change was important to their 2020 presidential vote choice
57% of voters agree that President-elect Biden should make climate change one of his top priorities during his first 100 days
52% of voters support the president issuing executive actions to combat climate change
49% of voters agree that the president has a mandate from the American people to issue executive actions to help combat climate change, even when shown Republican talking points against executive actions on climate
We’ll have more polling on climate policy priorities for the Biden-Harris Administration soon.
Policy
A Moment of Intersecting Crises: Climate Justice in the Era of Coronavirus
As we enter the second spike of coronavirus, we must keep in mind that not all communities are impacted equally. Frontline communities have been struggling with public health, economic, and environmental-justice issues since long before coronavirus. Marcela wrote an article for Society for International Development addressing these intersections and analyzing how the racist origins of the climate movement has led to a siloed and politically unpopular approach to climate policy.
Downballot wins!
We teamed up with Lead Locally to launch our Green New Deal Slate of local climate-candidates and raised over $205,000 to support them. Many of these candidates saw huge victories on Election Day that will bring us closer to the transformative change that we need. See updates of how the slate did on Election Day here.
New website, who dis?
We revamped our website! You can now find all of our climate polling and policy memos, blogs, etc. in one, well-organized place. We hope this makes our work more accessible and useful to all.
Green Transit
We published a blog post in collaboration with Transportation for America that addresses the climate implications of the recently reauthorized America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act (ATIA). We’ll have more polling on transit coming soon.
Senator Wyden on the blog!
Senator Ron Wyden makes the case for why we need a clean energy economic recovery on our blog. We have a clear opportunity to build a zero-carbon economy and revitalize American manufacturing.
Cross-Cutting Issues
The Senate is f*****
This election made clear the deep, systemic and structural challenges that Democrats face in winning governing majorities in Congress, especiallythe Senate. The Senate faces specific challenges as is shown in this blog post from DFP fellow Kira McDonald. Kira put together a data visualization that shows representational inequality in the three elected bodies of our national government. See here.
Bonus
Join Marcela for a post-election debrief this Saturday, November 28th. There will be comedy, games and more!
Media Hits
The Nation (Danielle and Julian op-ed)
The New Republic (Julian featured)
Grist: Temperature Check (Julian featured)
Biden
Huffington Post (Marcela quoted)
The Atlantic (Memo and polling mentioned)
Inside Climate News (Julian quoted)
Politico (Julian quoted, polling mentioned)
Common Dreams (Polling mentioned)
Huffington Post (Polling mentioned)
Salon (Polling mentioned)
Huffington Post (Julian quoted)
Atlantic (Julian quoted, polling mentioned)
VICE (Julian quoted)
NBC News THINK (Polling mentioned)
CleanTechnica (Polling mentioned)
MarketWatch (Polling mentioned)
Bozeman Daily Chronicle (Polling mentioned)
Inside Climate News (Danielle quoted)
Huffington Post (Julian quoted)
Canada’s National Observer (Julian quoted)
Red, Green, and Blue (DFP featured)
The National (Polling mentioned)
The Atlantic (Memo and polling mentioned)
Cabinet
My Northwest (memo cited)
Mic (Polling mentioned)
Axios (Julian quoted)
Oxfam (Memo mentioned)
Fracking
E&E News (Danielle quoted)
Climate media coverage
Medill Reports Chicago (Polling mentioned
Down Ballot races
Capital & Main (Polling mentioned)
Forbes (Polling mentioned)
Green New Deal
The New Republic (Polling mentioned)
The Berkeley Beacon (Polling mentioned)
Curbed (Memo cited)
Intra-Dem conflict:
Politico (Memo cited)
Common Dreams (Memo cited)
Politico (DFP mentioned)
Bloc Party (Polling mentioned)
Meme
