Overview

Design and execute a “New Vision for Energy” campaign to encourage a national market-based transition to alternative energy sources. Harness multiple messages tailored to different audiences that embed the climate change issue in a larger set of co-benefit narratives, such as: reducing U.S. dependency on Middle East oil (national security); penetrating global export markets with American innovations (U.S. stature); boosting U.S. job growth (jobs); and cutting local air pollution (health).

Recent posts | Participants | News | Objective | Related initiatives

News

Eileen Claussen, President of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change talks at Yale F&ES about the need for America to show leadership on the climate issue, and offers a comprehensive energy plan to reduce carbon emmissions. Video - 45 minutes

Objective

  • More compelling rationales for action. The climate change issue does not yet supply sufficient rationale for action on its own. Rather, it needs to be packaged with a larger constellation of issues that connect more easily with people’s salient concerns today and their incentives to pursue profitable opportunities.
  • Relationship to other initiatives.Initiatives linking climate change to energy issues are already underway, such as the National Commission on Energy Policy, the Energy Future Coalition Securing America’s Future Energy, and Set America Free. These other initiatives need to be diagnosed before launching another effort: Have they been successful so far, and if not, why not? Do they weight climate change heavily enough in their actions, communications and policy prescriptions? Should any incremental effort be directed toward reinforcing these other initiatives underway or launching a separate new campaign?
  • Positive vision. Sustain a positive, can-do tone in this campaign
    to the extent possible.
  • Localize where possible.Many of the messages contained in the larger campaign will lend themselves to identifying and communicating local risks and benefits.
  • Leverage-point strategy and grassroots.A leveraged strategy focusing on political elites and opinion influencers and a grassroots campaign are equally critical. Some are skeptical that a true grassroots “public education” campaign on climate change is really possible, given resource constraints, the complexity of the issue and other factors.
  • Use the “purple” approach (i.e., combining red and blue states).The bipartisan roots of environmental progress could be highlighted much more effectively in support of this campaign, both amidst the general public and elites. Those who know environmental history tend to be aware that leaders in both parties were critical to earlier successes, but the long shadow of recent polarization may have eclipsed this fact.
  • Highlight market-based mechanisms.One virtue of incorporating a cap-and-trade system into any proposed policy fixes for climate change is that it builds on the successful model of the acid rain program that was created under a Republican administration (George H.W. Bush), which could help moderate the partisanship associated with such a proposed policy if highlighted properly.
  • Clean coal as part of the equation.Some argue that the United States needs a major effort on clean coal and sequestration specifically to reduce the sense of economic risk that has led the coal industry to be generally opposed to climate change action.

Related initiatives

  • The Apollo Alliance is a broad coalition within the labor, environmental, business, urban, and faith communities in support of good jobs and energy independence. It has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO and 23 international labor unions as well as a majority of national environmental organizations. The Alliance is developing public education campaigns and communications strategies to link allies and build a new national constituency for a bold, broad based, and immediate program of public policy to achieve energy independence. The Apollo Alliance is pursuing a $300 billion, public-private program to create three million new, clean energy jobs to free America from foreign oil dependence in ten years. It is a program that reinvests in the competitiveness of American industry, rebuilds our cities, creates good jobs for working families, and ensures good stewardship of both the economy and our natural environment.

    It is a joint project of the Institute for America’s Future and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy.

  • Climate Counts is a new non-profit initiative spearheaded by Stonyfield Farm and Clean Air-Cool Planet, with support from GreenOrder (a sustainability strategy firm). It focuses on building a unique tool that will enable mainstream consumers who are concerned about global climate change to use their purchasing power to support companies and brands that have initiated enterprise action on the issue.

  • The National Commission on Energy Policy is a a bipartisan group of 20 of the nation’s leading energy experts – representing the highest ranks of industry, government, academia, labor, consumer and environmental protection – which joined together in 2004. The Commission will focus, in particular, on three critical long-term issues: oil security, climate change, and energy infrastructure adequacy and siting. The Commission is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and its partners.

  • The Green Machines Tour is an educational campaign to showcase fuel-efficient vehicle technologies being made in the nation’s heartland, and to build awareness of new policy opportunities that can further enhance the industry’s competitiveness. Launched in August 2004, the tour brings together local UAW officers, environmental organizations, auto industry representatives, and elected officials to promote fuel-efficient technologies and policies that can ensure that future advanced vehicle technologies are produced in the U.S., keeping the domestic automobile industry competitive.

  • The Energy Future Coalition is a broad-based, nonpartisan alliance that seeks to bridge the differences among business, labor, and environmental groups and identify energy policy options with broad political support. The coalition aims to bring about changes in U.S. energy policy to address the economic, security and environmental challenges related to the production and use of fossil fuels with a compelling new vision of the economic opportunities that will be created by the transition to a new energy economy.

  • Rocky Mountain Institute - Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was established in 1982 by resource analysts L. Hunter Lovins and Amory B. Lovins. What began as a small group of colleagues focusing on energy policy has since grown into a broad-based institution with approximately forty full-time staff, an annual budget of nearly $6 million (over half of it earned through programmatic enterprise), and a global reach. RMI brings a unique perspective to resource issues, guided by the following core principles: Advanced Resource Productivity, Systems Thinking, Positive Action, Market-Oriented Solutions, End-Use/Least-Cost Approach, Biological Insight, Corporate Transformation, The Pursuit of Interconnections, Natural Capitalism

  • Securing America’s Future Energy is an action-oriented, nonpartisan organization which aims to reduce America’s dependence on oil, addressing business and technology, politics and advocacy, and public education and media.

  • The Set America Free Coalition is a consortium of prominent individuals and non-profit organizations concerned about the security and economic implications of America’s growing dependence on foreign oil. The coalition, organized by the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), promotes a blueprint which spells out practical ways in which real progress toward energy security can be made over the next several years.

  • United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) is a group of businesses and leading environmental organizations that have come together to call on the federal government to quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. USCAP has issued a landmark set of principles and recommendations to underscore the urgent need for a policy framework on climate change.

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