How Biden’s climate plans could help Connecticut

Local environmental advocates are feeling optimistic after President-elect Joe Biden listed climate change as a top priority for his administration — and they are looking ahead to the work that can be done to improve the state’s environment. “It’s a sea change,” said Lori Brown, executive director of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters. “There’s an army of advocates who have been trying to play defense against the extraordinary, never seen before height of attacks on environmental protections we’ve seen in the past four years.”

The Connecticut League of Conservation Voters is a bipartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the state’s environment by making it a priority of elected leaders, she said.

The renewed focus by the Biden campaign on climate change and the environment not only put a spotlight on environmental issues, it also garnered youth support for the cause, according to Brown.

“It was the first time in our country climate change really became a mainstream political issue — it was part of the debates,” she said. “That happened as well in Connecticut.”

This year, the CTLCV endorsed 65 state legislative candidates who showed a commitment to improving the environment — and over 50 won election, she said. As environmental issues become a part of political campaigns, a national focus on the topic will strengthen local efforts, Brown said.

“There’s going to be a slew of changes in the administration and there will be a need for our state, and many others, to really get to work,” she said.

As part of his commitment to the environment, Biden has said he will reenter the Paris climate accord — which President Donald Trump left — on his first day in office.

The Paris Agreement, signed into effect in 2016 by nearly all of the world’s countries, seeks to limit global warming.

“He will not only recommit the United State to the Paris Agreement on climate change — he will go much further than that,” Biden’s transition website states. “He is working to lead an effort to get every major country to ramp up the ambition of their domestic climate targets.”

David Downie, chair of the Department of Political Science and director of the Environmental Studies Program at Fairfield University, said this commitment will be important symbolically and politically, improving the reputation of the country in the international community.

“Not being a part of a global effort to address the very serious issue of climate change is not positive for the United States,” Downie said. “It’s bad for our political and economical relations with a number of countries, and hurts our status as a potential international leader on a number of issues.”

He said the Paris Agreement is a bottom-up effort combined with a top-down treaty approach to get countries to act on their promises when it comes to climate change.

“It won’t necessarily impact any individual American with regards to having to change their behavior,” Downie said. “That will take place in the form of U.S. policy and if U.S. policies change.”

Sarah Crosby, director of Harbor Watch, said Biden’s emphasis on climate change could trickle down to the local level.

“To get this kind of attention on this issue from the president-elect is incredibly encouraging to me as a scientist,” Crosby said. “It shows that hopefully there will be some effort made to start addressing the threats posed by climate change because those are going to affect people globally, but right here in Connecticut as well.”

She said the threat coastal towns face due to rising sea levels and the increasing frequency and intensity of storms is significant.

“Hopefully this attention at the national level will get people more focused on these issues locally,” Crosby said.

The focus at the national level could also help through increased funding to help communities tackle these issues. She said this can help the state and local communities to engage in resilience planning, and incorporate climate change into all of their decision-making processes.

“I do think a lot of that is already happening,” Crosby said. “I think Connecticut is a state that has really embraced the inclusion of climate change in our planning processes, but I think there’s still a lot more to be done. These changes are happening now.”

Biden’s overall focus on climate could pay dividends for the state environmentally as well as economically, according to Downie.

“When a president sets something as a priority it does change the tone,” Downie said. “Particularly with climate change this is important because we are at the point now where we can reduce so many greenhouse gases while saving money.”

He said solar, wind and energy efficiency are growth industries for jobs and the economy. He said they are also industries that save money for companies, towns and individuals.

“Green energy is very good for the economy in the long run because it reduces the economic impacts of climate change and the negative economic impacts of air pollution, which are both very significant,” Downie said.

Short-term costs can be a barrier of entry into these industries, but one or two more stimulus bills may come to address the COVID crisis, and they are now more likely to include green-energy aspects, he said.

The state also had many jobs related to installing solar panels, and the severe economic problems caused by the pandemic has cost a lot of these jobs, Downie said.

ANGELA WEISS/AFP / TNS President-elect Joe Biden waves as he leaves The Queen in Wilmington, Del., on Tuesday. President-elect Joe Biden said he had told several world leaders that “America is back” after his defeat of Donald Trump in the bitterly contested U.S. election.