No Copping Out of Decisive Climate Action at COP28

Welcome back to Data for Climate Progress — your one-stop shop for all things climate at Data for Progress.

Welcome back to Data for Climate Progress — your one-stop shop for all things climate at Data for Progress. Catch us here every month for our latest climate polling, juicy insights, and can’t-miss reading lists. 

As always, we’d love to hear from you — drop us (Grace Adcox and Catherine Fraser) a line at gracea@dataforprogress.org and catherine@dataforprogress.org. Forwarded this email? You can subscribe below.

Green is the New Blue in Michigan

• Earlier this month, Michigan’s state Legislature passed a package of clean energy bills that require the state’s utility to transition to 100% carbon-free energy by 2040. DFP, along with our partners at Evergreen Action, Michigan League of Conservation Voters, Soulardarity, and Michigan United, found that 61% of Michigan voters support a transition to a 100% clean electricity grid by 2035. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Whitmer on November 28.

Voters to Biden: That’s a “No LNG” From Me, Dog 

• The Biden administration is facing its “next big climate test” over its decision whether or not to grant permits for at least 20 new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. If completed, these facilities would result in an extra 3.2 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, close to the entire annual emissions of the European Union. New polling from Data for Progress and Fossil Free Media finds that voters support limits on natural gas exports by a 2-to-1 margin and want to see new export facilities paused until the proper reviews are completed.

Someone Call Merriam-Webster, We’ve Got a New Word for Them: EV-Washing

• While companies tout their efforts to fuel an electric vehicle transition in the U.S., not all manufacturers are on the same page about what vehicle models count as electric vehicles under current climate goals. Earlier this fall, Toyota launched its “Electrified Diversified” marketing campaign, which collectively groups battery-electric, hydrogen fuel-cell, plug-in hybrid, and hybrid powertrain models as “EVs.” However, many of the vehicle types listed above have internal combustion engines that utilize electricity to enhance efficiency, but still require gasoline for power. In light of this deceptive advertising, Data for Progress recently surveyed likely voters, finding that a majority (62%) view vehicles without an internal combustion engine that operate entirely on electricity as EVs, compared with only 8% who view vehicles that are powered by gasoline but use electricity to enhance efficiency as EVs, and 23% who consider both types of vehicles to be EVs.

Hey, Siri, Play “California Gurls” by Katy Perry (ft. Snoop Dogg)

This month, our climate team went into the field in California, conducting three separate workshops on state climate infrastructure. At each workshop, we presented information about climate infrastructure projects ranging from utility-scale solar to transmission lines before dividing participants into four focus groups, where we asked community members to share their perspectives on prospective new climate infrastructure projects in their community.

DFP’s Climate Team in San Diego for our climate infrastructure community workshop series. From left to right: Charlotte Scott, Celina Scott-Buechler, Catherine Fraser, and Grace Adcox. 

These workshops built on seven workshops focused on direct air capture (DAC) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) DAC hubs that were conducted across the country and along the Gulf Coast in 2022 and 2023. Unlike our previous workshops, these focused on climate infrastructure writ large, including both carbon removal and clean energy technologies. You can look forward to the publication of our findings in the new year.

Carbon 👏 Management 👏 Must 👏 Be 👏 Community-Led

DFP’s Senior Climate and Energy Program Associate Catherine Fraser spoke at the Carbon Management Dialogue hosted by Climate Now, DOE, the city of Houston, and Rice University. She outlined DFP’s key findings from our qualitative community workshop in East Houston, Texas, and stressed our topline takeaway: Currently, conditions for effective, responsible, and equitable carbon management — especially those operated by historic polluters like the fossil fuel industry — do not exist. 

We need to build strong governance now, before projects are built, to ensure that new development places a central focus on environmental justice and does not repeat past harms. 

Catherine Fraser (left) presents at the Houston Carbon Management Dialogue, along with Alex Spike of Air Alliance Houston and Donna Thomas of Fort Bend Environmental.

No Copping Out of Decisive Climate Action at COP28

If COP28 was an episode of “Friends,” they may very well call it “The One With the Oil CEO in Charge,” with leaked reports indicating that the United Arab Emirates is planning to use the annual climate talks to negotiate future oil and gas deals with 15 other countries. If you’re thinking that the UAE’s plans fly in the face of the scientific consensus that we need to rapidly phase out fossil fuels, you’re right.

After another year of record-shattering temperatures, wildfires, hurricanes, and other extremes here and abroad, the need for ambitious climate action is ever apparent as COP28 kicks off today. As 2023 comes to a close, we draw nearer to the end of the decisive decade for climate action, with 2030 as a make-or-break deadline for preventing catastrophic warming greater than 2 C. 

But it’s not all bad news. The United States and China announced earlier this month the revival of a bilateral climate working group, as well as plans to support new measures to grow renewable energy and cut methane and plastic pollution at COP28. The agreement could be a good omen for the proceedings at COP28 — the last time the two countries made such an agreement was ahead of COP21 in 2015, which resulted in the Paris Climate Agreement.

New polling from Data for Progress finds that voters want the U.S. to commit to ambitious climate action at COP28. A strong majority of voters (77%) view it as at least “somewhat important” for the U.S. to demonstrate that it is taking strong action on climate change. Notably, support for strong action and global leadership by the U.S. holds across party lines, with 91% of Democrats, 74% of Independents, and 63% of Republicans in support. 

Climate action at COP has been stymied in the past by holdout countries — including the U.S. — but voters are ready for the U.S. to take action at COP28, even if other countries do not. A majority of voters (65%) believe the U.S. should lead the world on climate, even if other countries lag behind.

Beyond making bold domestic climate targets, Americans want the U.S. to pull its weight to ensure global climate justice through a fund to support countries experiencing great damages from climate change – the “loss and damage fund” you’ve probably heard pundits and climate advocates talking about when covering COP28. Data for Progress finds that a majority of voters (58%) support establishing a global financial fund to support countries hit hard by climate change. The fund, established at COP27 last year, is intended to provide financial support for climate damages to vulnerable countries, though it has faced hurdles in getting off the ground. Today, COP28 negotiators agreed to sort out the major details of the fund — including how it would work and which counties would fund it — during this year’s conference.

Voters agree with experts: The world needs to phase out fossil fuels. Data for Progress finds that a majority of voters (53%) support countries agreeing to a phaseout of fossil fuels at COP28. Support is highest among Democrats (76%), with majorities of Independents (51%), people under 45 (57%) and people 45 and over (52%) supporting such a phaseout.

As the U.S. attends COP28, Americans have an appetite for strong climate action and leadership from the U.S. — all eyes are on the U.S. to deliver for our climate and future generations. Let’s make it “The One Where They Finally Do the Dang Thing.”

Read our full brief on COP28 here.

• Inside the Campaign that Put an Oil Boss In Charge of a Climate Summit, by Amy Westervelt (The Intercept)

• US and UK Militaries ‘Owe’ Combined $111bn in Climate Reparations – Study, by Dharna Noor (The Guardian)

• Democracy in a Hotter Time, edited by David Orr (MIT Press)

• Republicans Propose One of the Year’s Most Interesting Climate Bills, by Robinson Meyer (Heatmap)

• Climate Groups Launch National Tour for Green New Deal, by Dharna Noor (The Guardian)

• In a First, MIT Trains Students to Resolve Clean Energy Conflicts, by Amy Harder (AP)

• The Carbon Capture Sector’s Community-Involvement Rhetoric Doesn’t Match Reality, by Dana Drugman (DeSmog)

• The World’s Biggest Carbon Removal Plant Just Turned 2. So, Uh, Is It Working?, by Emily Pontecorvo (Heatmap)

• Offshore Wind’s Bizarre Global Problem, by Kate Aronoff (The New Republic)