Morgan Caplan
Senior Communications Manager
Nat Keohane, president, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), highlights how shifting economic realities, new technologies, and bipartisan energy priorities are reshaping climate action in the U.S. During our most recent Q&A, we uncover how the trust gap in Congress is a key barrier to permitting reform and what both parties can do to build a deal. He also reflects on the need for effective international cooperation ahead of the COP this month. Watch the full interview here.
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On How Recent Trends are Affecting the Climate Conversation:
“I think the biggest thing is that the tangible economic opportunities and economic benefits at the local level, the tangible benefits from clean energy, from the low carbon transition are becoming real to people in a way they haven’t been before.
“That’s result of falling costs of wind and solar. That’s the result of new technologies, new battery storage technologies and so on. We see factories coming up…throughout the country. That’s kind of an unrecognized trend that we’re starting to see that I think is going to have really profound implications.”
On Permitting Reform and What Both Parties in Congress Must Do to Get It Done:
“I will tell you, the biggest obstacle right now is just trust, it’s trust that if they implement a kind of level playing field agreement in Congress that is really neutral, [it will make it] easier to build and let the kind of cheapest, fastest energy win.
“The AI boom and the data center boom is making Republicans much more interested in building new transmission and getting new electrons onto the grid… And so on the one hand Republicans say, ‘Okay, well, we can talk about transmission. Let’s think about how to solve that problem.’ And on the other side of the aisle, you have the Democratic party that has realized it needs to be pro-building stuff. We can’t wait seven or ten years to build a transmission line or a manufacturing facility. We need to be making it easier to build, not harder.”
On the Current Focus and Aspiration of Companies that Have Set Climate Targets:
“Look, there is a business case for this. Either it’s because they know that their company is going to be around and they want to be competitive and leading their sector at that time, or maybe they’re making investments that are going into factories…and they know those factories need to be paying out even in a very different kind of net zero world.
“It’s also because they need to attract talent and we hear from every company we speak with that to get the talent they need in this next generation they need to show up on climate.”
On His Message to Global Leaders on Climate:
“With respect to COP and kind of the international dynamics, we think that this COP is at an important inflection point…There are things the negotiators will be working on, but that’s not going to be the headline.
“The real question is, can the Paris Agreement and this conference framework convention on climate. What are the areas where greater international cooperation can make a difference? How do we catalyze that? What we’re asking is how do we take those provisions of [the Paris Agreement] and really lean into them so that the focus of these conversations and of these conferences becomes action…We need effective international cooperation and that’s what the Paris Agreement I think can deliver.”
On The Biggest Professional Risk He’s Ever Taken:
“The biggest professional risk I took was leaving a tenure track job in academia. I had just been promoted to associate professor at Yale. Everybody I knew at that time thought I was crazy for willingly kind of stepping off that tenure track and diving into policy…and I actually never looked back. [I thought] if I can be an effective climate expert and advocate for good policies, I’ll, you know, land on my feet. And, I’ve really enjoyed it so far.”
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