A bipartisan panel advocated for reducing the politicization of climate change during the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival Saturday.
Texas State Rep. Gina Hinojosa said that although climate legislation is needed on the federal level, both parties have a responsibility to reduce carbon emissions on the state and local levels as well.
Texas currently produces over 600 million metric tons of carbon emissions, the most of any U.S. state. This is the result of the oil and natural gas industries’ economic power within the state, which Hinojosa said many Texans rely on for employment.
Hinojosa praised Texas for being the largest producer of wind and solar energy in the U.S., and, along with other panelists, said Texas needs to transition its economy towards cleaner forms of energy to reduce its carbon footprint.
“We are both the problem and the solution,” Hinojosa said.
John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona, said communities need to not only implement new technologies, but also foster understanding around climate change and renewable energy to reduce emissions.
“On this issue, to a large extent, we’re all flying the airplane while we’re building it,” Giles said. “We’re going to need additional advancements in technology. We’re going to need innovative solutions along the path to get to that ultimate goal..”
Clean energy needs to be incentivized economically by state and local governments to boost its implementation, Giles said.
As mayor, Giles said he has done this by implementing a four step Climate Action Plan in his town, considered by UCLA as one of the most conservative cities in the country. Mesa has also innovated by adopting the first electric-powered emergency vehicles, he added.
Climate change is not only a partisan issue, but also a generational one, Giles said. He sees the issue moving away from party lines with the help of young voters.
“In the meantime, there are still plenty of folks who I would say are well intentioned, but they just don’t have the same appreciation for the urgency of the climate issue that many of us share,” Giles said.
Climate change used to be a non-partisan issue and needs to be again, said Benjamin Backer, executive chair of the American Conservation Coalition.
“There’s no reason why protecting the environment and fighting climate change should be a partisan issue,” Backer said. “As a society, it affects all of us in a way that other issues don’t.”
The coalition, which Backer founded in 2017, was the result of there being a lack of conservative organizations dedicated to protecting the environment.
Backer said that although the public is currently polarized on the issue of environmental protection, he does see the issue as a way to sew future political unity.
“They want clean air and clean water,” Backer said. “They want healthy communities. They want safe communities. They want jobs for themselves and the next generation. They want similar things, it’s just that they might have different ways of getting there.”
