President’s Authorities to Deal With Climate Change
PCAP commissioned two important studies on the President’s power to reshape national programs on climate change and energy security without further action by Congress.
Climate Action Plans
Research on and physical measurements of climate change have been underway around the world since the late 19th century. Since 1988, global climate change has been the focus of the biggest scientific enterprise in history, conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Crowd-Source Government’s Role in the Future We Want
We welcome your ideas on what local, state and federal governments should do to help the United States shift to clean and renewable energy and to fight global climate change. We are looking especially for ideas on government policies and programs that are consistent with both conservative and progressive values.
Common Ground Series
The 2016 election marks the 10th year that PCAP has developed options for incoming and sitting presidents on how to confront climate change and build a clean energy economy with or without the help of Congress. This year, PCAP’s mission is to identify “common ground” options that are consistent with conservative as well as progressive values. Toward that end, the project has assembled a National Advisory Committee whose members include some of the nation’s most distinguished thought leaders from both major political parties. PCAP’s 2016 products are issue papers on a variety of topics from renewable energy financing to restoring natural carbon sinks. In addition, we have posted links to papers and reports from other organizations that have produced climate action and clean energy options for the next Administration.
The Silent Climate Majority
Surveys by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communications have repeatedly shown that most Americans are interested in the issue of global warming and consider it personally important. But the Project’s latest survey finds that for most Americans, climate change is not a common topic of conversation or something they hear about much in their daily lives. More than half of those who are interested in global warming or think the issue is important “rarely” or “never” talk about it with family and friends (57% and 54% respectively).
Powering Forward
“What everyone should know about America’s energy revolution.”
Bill Ritter Jr., co-chair of PCAP’s National Advisory Committee, has written a new book on “what everyone should know about America’s energy revolution.”
Available from Fulcrum Publishing.
“As we peer into society’s future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow.”
“We have, I hope, finally put to rest the false choice between the economy and the environment, for we have the strongest economy perhaps in our history, with a cleaner environment.”
“The great question of the seventies is, shall we surrender to our surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land, and to our water?”
“I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet that’s beyond fixing.”
“Laws change; people die; the land remains.”