🔗 Share this article

During stuffy United Nations media briefings, in luxurious auditoriums and at crowded progressive celebrations, one word was on all lips at this year’s Climate Week NYC: affordability.

The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, said that during President Trump the United States is “returning to commonsense energy policies that focus on affordability”. The former energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, emphasized Democrats must center on renewable power’s capacity to reduce power bills to secure elections. And advocates of the likely soon-to-be New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, trumpeted their initiatives to connect green policies with actions to cut city residents’ rent and make transit affordable.

The effort to tie everyday cost issues to climate change is not new. The idea was a central part of the Green New Deal, a forward-thinking policy platform championed by youth-led climate group the Sunrise Movement and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018. Joe Biden adopted the approach in the White House, calling 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 proposals as methods to protect everyday citizens’ finances.

Essential Reads

• Revealed: Europe losing 600 football pitches of nature and farmland a day
• UK hydraulic fracturing prohibition to be accelerated as Labour responds to Reform promise
• Israel’s ecocide in Gaza delivers this signal: even if we stopped dropping bombs, you couldn’t live here

Spotlight

Every year, Climate Week in New York City unites public leaders, business representatives, experts and activists for a wide range of climate-focused events, timed to align with the United Nations general assembly.

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

Climate advocates attempted to reveal those claims as false while getting Americans on board with green policies on the basis that they can lower costs. For instance, two Democratic representatives, from Illinois and California, unveiled a proposal to speed new power-line construction and restore green energy incentives which Trump canceled earlier this year. Its name: the Cheap Energy Act.

It’s a framework that Jennifer Granholm, who acted as US energy secretary under Biden, noted she anticipated as climate falls down the list of public priorities for Americans, while economic worries 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 must-have mode,” she told reporters over avocado toast one morning. “Affordability is crucial.”

Those well to Granholm’s left also called for a emphasis on affordability in the climate fight. But many called for more ambitious solutions that deliver more immediate benefits. Instead of merely adjusting with the tax code to incentivize green technology buildout – a signature of Biden’s climate efforts – politicians should prioritize less wonky, “green economic populist” campaigns such as no-cost transit and the development of decarbonized public housing.

“These kinds of programs do have decarbonization benefits, but they’re highly important for starting to establish a mass base [who have] trust in public institutions and trust in the government,” Batul Hassan, workforce lead at the left-leaning thinktank Climate and Community Institute, remarked at a panel.

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

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

Communication is important, but merely speaking about affordability is insufficient, Alexa Avilés, a New York City council member and progressive, told the Guardian at the Mamdani event. Trump, for instance, has not delivered to fulfill on his promise of reducing bills while handing huge benefits to oil giants and other corporations. And many Democrats are also guilty of favoring their corporate donors’ interests, Avilés said.

“Some people speak about working-class folks, but then they make policies that are designed for the rich. We’ve been dealing with that disappointment for a long time,” she said. “We need to focus on actually bringing relief to people. And we see that when we genuinely prioritize people over profit, people react to that. People can discern who is for real.”

Read More:

• US energy department cracks down on workers’ use of climate crisis language
• Trump administration spending $625m to revive dying coal industry
• Los Angeles pledged to host the Olympics without straining the bank and environment. Can it?