During every climate conversation in the United States, one objection always seems to arise: "but what about China and India's emissions?" It's a valid question. It also shouldn't dissuade climate action.
Yesterday, global leaders convened in Dubai for the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), where they will seek to form and strengthen collective climate commitments. Many climate advocates worry that escalating international violence, failures during previous climate summits in 2023, the UAE's restrictions on peaceful assembly, and the selection of an oil CEO as COP28 president could combine to thwart any progress at the gathering. If negotiations falter, Americans may be left wondering why we should even bother addressing climate change at home. After all, if China and India do nothing, the world wouldn't meet its climate goals, and everyone would face the consequences.
However, this why-bother question is premised on the misconception that climate action is necessarily a sacrifice. In reality, smart climate policies also help local environments, public health, justice, national security, and the economy. If the U.S. were to go it alone, things would still be bad for the climate, but by every other metric, we'd be the ones who come out ahead.
In the past, one could have argued that climate action presented prohibitive economic tradeoffs. Today, that's rarely true. Since 2010, the cost of photovoltaic solar energy has dropped by 85 percent, the cost of onshore wind has dropped by 55 percent, and the cost of batteries for electric vehicles has dropped by 85 percent. In 2020, 62 percent of newly installed renewables for power generation were cheaper than the cheapest fossil fuel alternative. It is now more expensive for 99 percent of America's coal plants to keep running than it is to build entirely new solar or wind energy operations nearby.
It's not just clean energy. The 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report analyzed the economic costs of 38 climate change mitigation measures, finding that 16 actually start out saving money. It is literally cheaper to implement these solutions than to maintain the status quo! In addition to solar, wind, and nuclear energy, these cost-saving solutions include energy-efficient lighting and appliances, fuel-efficient vehicles, public transportation, bikes and e-bikes, optimized shipping, and curbed fluorinated gas emissions.
If the U.S. embraces these solutions while China and India lag behind, we unfortunately would not be exempt from climate-induced damage. But from a purely economic standpoint, it's their loss, not ours.
Beyond providing an economic boost, smart climate policies can also make life better for everyday Americans. The IPCC report also compared 43 climate solutions to 16 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals—including an end to poverty and hunger; better education; gender equality; clean water; innovation; and world peace—to see if there were synergies, tradeoffs, or a combination. Out of 396 such permutations, the report found 271 synergies, 113 with a mix, and only 12 pure tradeoffs. In other words, a vast majority of climate solutions are not sacrifices, but opportunities to improve life across the board.
Of course, that doesn't absolve individual climate policies from criticism. Poorly designed bans, taxes, regulations, and investments can hamper economic growth, leave communities behind, or incorporate irrelevant political priorities. But that is a problem with those particular policies, not with climate action generally. We are better served voicing concerns about specific legislation than debating whether we should do anything at all.
Furthermore, the why-bother question seems to suggest that the U.S., China, and India aren't currently addressing climate change. That, too, is misguided.
From 2005 to 2019, U.S. emissions dropped by about 16 percent. In 2022, renewable energy accounted for 21.3 percent of utility-scale electricity generation in the United States, and nuclear contributed another 18.2 percent—that's nearly 40 percent of the grid decarbonized! In the past five years alone, the U.S. has passed several laws with climate implications, including bipartisan efforts such as the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the USE IT Act, the BEST Act, the Nuclear Energy Leadership Act, and the Great American Outdoors Act. Moreover, the bulk of U.S. climate action to date has come not from federal laws, but the private sector. In 2021 alone, climate tech startups raised $53.7 billion from venture capital and private equity.
American climate action is well underway. The question now isn't whether to do it, but how policymakers can speed it up; help anyone negatively impacted by these changes; and get out of the way by peeling back maritime shipping restrictions, excessive permitting requirements, fossil fuel subsidies, and other counterproductive regulations.
Though China and India aren't as far along, they are showing positive signs. China's carbon emissions are expected to peak by 2025 under current policies, and though these industries are rife with serious humanitarian issues, China is by far the world's top supplier of renewable energy technologies and will have over 80 percent of the world's solar manufacturing capacity through 2026. And India, while way too reliant on coal, has implemented measures to support its solar, energy storage, and green hydrogen industries. In fact, at last year's COP27 conference, it was India who proposed a global phasedown of fossil fuels. There are certainly petrostates with whom climate negotiation presents an upward climb, but it would be myopic to lump China and India into that group.
Despite the laundry list of reasons to be pessimistic about international diplomacy right now, obstructing American climate progress in the name of China and India isn't the answer. If other countries follow our climate leadership, that's a win-win. If they don't, we're the ones who come out ahead economically and societally—and once they see that, they'll end up joining us. Let's stop pretending climate action is a chore and start showcasing the exciting benefits of smart climate solutions.
Ethan Brown is a Writer and Commentator for Young Voices with a B.A. in Environmental Analysis & Policy from Boston University. He is the creator and host of The Sweaty Penguin, an award-winning comedy climate program. Follow him on Twitter @ethanbrown5151.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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