Where to find climate change in your newsletter

The devastating and deadly effects of Hurricanes Helen and Milton in the final weeks of the 2024 election refocused voters across the country on the climate crisis. Climate has long been a priority for many Coloradans, who have suffered from severe droughts and unprecedented wildfires in recent years.

Climate change, the environment and natural resources were among the top five issues identified by more than 7,000 Coloradans who responded to Voters’ votes poll.

“I would like to hear the candidates’ views on how fracking contributes to climate change and what they would do to promote a just transition from fossil fuels to clean renewable energy,” wrote Erie resident Elizabeth Fisher.

Liberals and moderate respondents were much more likely than conservatives to list climate and the environment as a top issue, a trend consistent with the Colorado Health Foundation’s 2024 results. Pulse surveywhich found that while 80% of Democrats view climate change as an “extremely” or “very” serious problem, fewer than 1 in 10 Republicans say the same.

Thousands of scientists participating in periodic reports published by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change wrote in 2021 that the science of human-caused global warming is “unequivocal”: Greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by human activity, mostly through the burning of fossil fuels, account for virtually all of the warming observed since the mid-18th century. Since then, the average global temperature has risen by about 1.2 degrees Celsius.

What may seem like a small increase has already had a major impact on Earth’s climate. Extreme rainfall in the southeastern United States during Hurricane Helen, which caused an estimated 232 deaths and nearly $40 billion in damage, was “20 times more likely” due to current levels of global warming, according to Berkeley National Laboratory climate scientists. is evaluated. Over the past two decades, high temperatures in the Colorado River Basin have been the main driver of a “megadrought” that hydrologists have found to be worse than any dry season in the region. at least 1200 years.

In a special report Published six years ago this month, IPCC scientists issued a final plea to governments around the world, urging policymakers to take action to limit the rise in average global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avert the catastrophic risks of further warming. The IPCC warned that this would require “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society”.

This did not happen.

Instead, Colorado, the federal government and many other states have taken steps to gradually transition away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy over the next several decades. They have made important, incremental progress in reducing projected future emissions by doing worst case scenarios for the climate by the end of the 21st century is less likely. But the efforts to date are not justified scientifically based goalsand we’re still on track to roughly double the planet’s current rate of warming.

For voters like Fisher, who also named good government and the economy among her top three issues this year, the stakes for the planet can’t be overlooked.

“I believe that my three options are inextricably linked,” she wrote. “Without a healthy climate, we cannot have a healthy economy, and effective governance recognizes the need for change.”

If climate change, the environment and natural resources are top concerns for you, this is where your voice has the most impact.

Presidential race

President Joe Biden’s signature climate policy, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, included about $370 billion in new federal funding and tax credits for clean energy technologies like wind and solar generation, electric cars, more efficient appliances and more.

The Biden administration has combined the IRA incentives with major new Environmental Protection Agency rules aimed at curbing emissions from cars, power plants and oil and gas infrastructure. Collectively, these efforts constitute by far the most ambitious set of climate measures in U.S. history, but recently analysis they are estimated to achieve about half of the emission reductions recommended by scientists over the next decade.

Vice President Kamala Harris credits the IRA’s tax breaks with helping to create 800,000 new industry jobs during Biden’s tenure, and vows to “build on (the administration’s) historic work” in confronting the climate crisis. At the same time, Harris backed away from her previous support for a ban on fracking and instead boasted on the campaign trail that under Biden, domestic oil and gas production had reached an all-time high.

Former President Donald Trump has long called climate change a “hoax,” and during his first term he led a sweeping rollback of Obama-era emissions regulations. The Washington Post reported In May, Trump asked a group of the country’s top oil executives to contribute $1 billion to his campaign during a meeting at the Mar-a-Lago club, vowing to once again roll back dozens of climate and environmental regulations passed by the Biden EPA and other federal agencies.

Races to Congress

Neither of Colorado’s two most competitive counties is a stranger to heated climate and energy conversations.

Voters in the 3rd District, where Democrat Adam Frisch is hoping for an upset victory over Republican Jeff Hurd for the seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Lauren Bobert, have been more affected by climate change than any other district in the state, and possibly the country. The megadrought on the Colorado River has placed significant stress on the water supply that Western Slope cities and agricultural producers rely on, increased risks of catastrophic wildfires, and increased threats to the region’s natural landscapes and outdoor recreation industry.

But the 3rd District also illustrates the political challenges of the energy transition. While Pueblo, its largest city, is home to a rapidly growing clean energy sectorcommunities in Garfield County and other parts of the Western Slope face a more uncertain future amid declining demand for the coal and natural gas resources that once made them prosperous. Both Frisch and Hurd say they support “all of the above” energy policies and have been vocal about Biden’s efforts to respond to the climate crisis.

Meanwhile, Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo faces a challenge from Republican state Rep. Gabe Evans in Colorado’s 8th District, another region on the cutting edge of climate and energy policy. Residents of Denver’s northern suburbs and southern Weld County have benefited from jobs, growth and tax revenue from the booming oil and gas sector of the northern Front Range, but they’ve also borne the cost of harmful air pollution from fracking sites and industrial polluters like the Suncor Refinery.

Caraveo often cited her work as a pediatrician, her first-hand witness to the negative health effects of air pollution on hundreds of young patients as motivation for her to run for office, and while serving in the state Legislature, she co-authored the landmark The draft law of 2019 strengthen labor protection rules in the oil and gas industry. Evans, a first-term state lawmaker and former police officer, has repeatedly voted against Democratic-backed clean energy legislation, and his campaign website blames “climate fear” and “draconian left-wing climate regulations” for the rising cost of living.

With the race for control of the U.S. House of Representatives expected to come down to just a handful of congressional races across the country, voters in the 3rd and 8th districts could play a crucial role in determining whether the IRA and other Biden-era climate policies are in line are maintained and expanded or weakened and canceled.

State legislative races

With few exceptions, Republicans in the Colorado General Assembly have continued in recent years directly deny scientific consensus on human-caused climate change. Democrats, who took full control of state government in 2019 and have since increased their legislative majorities, generally agree on the need for drastic emissions cuts, but don’t always agree on how to get there.

The emissions reduction strategies pursued by Gov. Jared Polis’ administration largely mirror the Biden administration’s approach, combining clean energy incentives with modest regulations on pollutants. Polis publicly — and successfully — opposite efforts Democratic lawmakers have introduced more aggressive measures, such as a cap-and-trade scheme or legally binding emissions caps, and his administration has shown no desire to tackle climate change while reining in oil and gas production that remains near record highs.

The results of this approach were also largely similar to those at the federal level: despite significant progress, Colorado appears to be effectively not enough next year of the first science-based emissions target set by the 2019 Climate Action Act, which called for a 26% reduction in emissions statewide by 2025. Without significant improvements, the state’s next legislative goal, a 50 percent reduction by 2030, could also be in jeopardy.

Colorado’s biggest climate victories over the past five years have come in the power sector, where state officials — with a big boost from falling wind and solar generation costs — have been able to coax and push utilities into a series of deals that would see all of the state’s coal-fired power plants shut down. that remained until 2031.

But progress has been much slower, especially in other sectors transportation. Even as sales of electric vehicles continue to grow, millions of gas-guzzling cars and trucks will likely remain on Colorado roads for years to come. For the policy, the state opposed the policy that was carried out in other states, for example California ban on sales of new gas-powered cars by 2035 or a mandate to encourage large employers multimodal tripsand there’s little sign that Coloradans will be willing to give up their cars and switch to buses or e-bikes any time soon—at least not on a large enough scale to make a difference.

Faced with these challenges, Polis and top officials in his administration have opened a new front in the state’s fight to reduce emissions from transportation and other sectors. Adopting the mantra that “housing policy is climate policy,” they want Colorado municipalities to “grow” more of their areas for higher-density residential development that will create less dependence on automobile travel.

State lawmakers approved parts that agenda is phased in, with new laws requiring higher-density transit corridors, legalizing the construction of additional residential units in most cases, and banning local minimum parking requirements that advocates say discourage multifamily housing. At the same time, they have implemented a new oil and gas production fee to fund expanded public transit services and are moving forward with projects like the Front Range Passenger Rail.

But even in the legislature, where Democrats hold a large majority, the most ambitious land-use proposals backed by Polis and his allies have run into a stone wall of opposition from lobby groups that represent local governments and a bloc of Democratic lawmakers from the Front Range suburbs and prosperous mountain regions. bridge. In some cases, opponents naked reform legislation on enforcement mechanisms, and experts say implementation these new laws will need to be closely monitored. As climate action advocates continue to push for cleaner air, expanded transit, and more walkable and bikeable neighborhoods in communities across the state, every vote at the Capitol will count.