🔗 Share this article

At formal UN media briefings, in swanky auditoriums and at crowded socialist celebrations, one word was on everyone’s lips at this year’s Climate Week NYC: cost-effectiveness.

The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, said that during President Trump the United States is “returning to practical energy policies that focus on affordability”. The former energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, emphasized Democrats must center on renewable power’s capacity to shrink power bills to secure elections. And supporters of the likely future New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, trumpeted their initiatives to link green policies with efforts to cut city residents’ rent and ensure transit affordable.

The attempt to tie daily cost issues to global warming is longstanding. The idea was a key part of the Green New Deal, a forward-thinking policy platform popularized by youth-led climate group the Sunrise Movement and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018. Joe Biden adopted the framing in the White House, naming his signature green carbon-cutting policy the Inflation Reduction Act, from 2022.

Now, as utility bills rise around the country, Americans on all sides of the political spectrum are presenting their energy and climate plans as ways to protect everyday citizens’ pocketbooks.

Key Reads

• Revealed: The EU losing 600 football pitches of nature and crop land a day
• UK hydraulic fracturing prohibition to be accelerated as Labour counters Reform promise
• Israel’s environmental destruction in Gaza delivers this message: even if we stopped dropping bombs, you couldn’t live here

Spotlight

Annually, Climate Week in New York City unites public leaders, corporate actors, scholars and campaigners for a vast array of environment-centered events, scheduled to align with the United Nations general assembly.

This year, the Trump administration’s environment-deregulating campaign threw a significant shadow over the event. In appearances through the week, White House officials aimed to peg its deregulatory agenda as a victory to lower Americans’ bills, with Trump calling green energy a “scam” and Wright declaring: “The more people have gotten into so-called climate action, the more expensive their energy has become.”

Environmental supporters worked to reveal those claims as false while persuading Americans to support with green policies on the grounds that they can lower costs. For instance, two Democratic representatives, from Illinois and California, unveiled a proposal to accelerate new power-line construction and reinstate green energy incentives which Trump canceled earlier this year. Its name: the Cheap Energy Act.

It’s a strategy that Jennifer Granholm, who served as US energy secretary under Biden, noted she expected as climate slips down the list of public priorities for Americans, while financial anxieties rise. “My guess is you’re not going to see a lot of politicians using the word ‘climate’, because people see that as a nice-to-have [concern], not a essential, and right now they’re in the critical mode,” she told reporters over avocado toast one morning. “Affordability is crucial.”

Those significantly Granholm’s progressive side also advocated a focus on affordability in the climate fight. But many demanded more far-reaching solutions that deliver more immediate benefits. Instead of merely tinkering with the tax code to incentivize green technology expansion – a hallmark of Biden’s climate efforts – politicians should prioritize less wonky, “green economic populist” campaigns such as fare-free transit and the development of low-carbon public housing.

“These kinds of programs do have emissions-reduction benefits, but they’re extremely important for starting to establish a broad support [who have] faith in public institutions and confidence in the government,” Batul Hassan, workforce lead at the progressive thinktank Climate and Community Institute, remarked at a panel.

Mamdani, the socialist who secured a remarkable win in the New York City mayoral primary this summer, embodies this kind of platform, said Hassan. On Wednesday of Climate Week, activists assembled for a dance party at the legendary Sounds of Brazil music venue to honor the candidate’s success.

“It has long been recognized that if we’re going to build a broad coalition, people need to see the connection between the shift to renewable energy and paying less money,” New York City comptroller Brad Lander said in an interview at the party, shouting over the thrum of Charli xcx.

Communication is critical, but merely talking about affordability is insufficient, Alexa Avilés, a New York City council member and democratic socialist, told the Guardian at the Mamdani event. Trump, for instance, has failed to deliver on his promise of lowering bills while giving huge benefits to oil giants and other corporations. And many Democrats are also guilty of favoring their business backers’ interests, Avilés said.

“Some people talk about working-class folks, but then they create policies that are intended for the rich. We’ve been dealing with that frustration for a long time,” she said. “We need to focus on actually bringing relief to people. And we see that when we really center people over profit, people respond to that. People can tell who is for real.”

Further Reading:

• US energy department tightens rules on workers’ use of environmental emergency language
• Trump administration allocating $625m to revive dying coal industry
• Los Angeles pledged to host the Olympics without straining the bank and environment. Can it?