The backdrop for every government committed to meeting the Paris commitments is the unrelenting impact of extreme weather and growing public belief that this crisis requires bold action. That is reflected in President Joe Biden’s determination to pass his infrastructure and climate legislation in the next week, in climate policy becoming the principal consideration in the forming of a new German government, and the British government announcing new policies to speed the transition and new opening to nuclear power. But the growing worry is combined with great uncertainty about whether either business or government is doing enough or acting on scale to address this crisis. That combination is leading publics in the leading economies to turn to government rather than markets to bring change.
Climate Policy and Strategy is a new organization helping governments and businesses globally sustain the bold changes they have committed to. Accordingly, it conducted surveys in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France, and only Biden has benefited ’s climate policies seem bold enough to change the trajectory. Only Biden’s climate initiatives seem up to scale and translate into his being seen as stronger on the economy and in the job — assuming Congress passes the infrastructure and climate measures in the coming weeks.
The starting point is the fully 60 percent of the public in all these countries believe “climate change is a threat and we need major action to combat it,” rejecting that the threat is exaggerated. That belief reaches 77 percent of Democrats where this is a motivating issue for the mid-term elections and reaches 51 percent of moderate Republicans. Climate change is also an important issue for independents, where Biden has support in the last couple of months.
At the time of the survey in June when Biden was polling much stronger, 57 percent approved “how the government is handling climate change, the environment and the energy transition,” and even higher when respondents were informed of the policies and the debate around them. But in Germany, Angela Merkel’s disapproval on these was 13 points higher than her overall disapproval (49 percent versus 36 percent). That is probably because the public overwhelmingly supports proposals to take coal-fired power plants off the grid.
And fully 56 percent disapproved of how Macron was handling climate, the environment and energy transition. Great Britain was divided on how Boris Johnson was handling these challenges. And in both Britain and France, the predominant reason was the governments “not doing enough” or “the targets too low” and “no action or measurable improvement.”
So, right now governments are being pressed to do more, but there is no support for market solutions, like a “tax on burning coal, oil and natural gas” or even as a way “to fund the development of renewables and a sustainable economy.” Instead, they are looking for the “government to do much more” by “setting regulations to make everyone more energy efficient and invest in the innovative research to enable us to make the transition to a low carbon economy.”
Those in the business community or those looking to strengthen the US plans will not find any support in the public for pricing carbon. It seems morally and politically indefensible to have the ordinary consumer pay higher prices in the short-term after the oil and gas companies have operated profitably up until now and government has taken insufficient action. This looks even more problematic after the energy price increases coming out of the pandemic.
Has anybody noticed that President Biden and the Democrats opposed any gas tax increase and any rise in taxes for those earning under $400,000? The issue is settled in the United States and probably in Great Britain. Many European leaders now have committed to use their recovery funds to protect consumers from price increases. Perhaps it is settled in Europe too.
I think one should view the public’s skepticism about markets and turn to government playing a much bigger role as a fairly reasonable and responsible response to the way energy markets and governments have operated up until now. Neither business or political leaders begin with a lot of trust, and right now, the publics want governments to change the rules of the game and trajectory on energy use.