New Episode of Resources Radio: “Candidate Tracker: The Big Picture on Candidates’ Climate Policy Plans, with Joseph Aldy”
WASHINGTON, DC—Resources for the Future (RFF) today released a new installment of Resources Radio: “Candidate Tracker: The Big Picture on Candidates’ Climate Policy Plans, with Joseph Aldy.”
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Joseph Aldy, a professor of the practice of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a university fellow here at RFF. As an environmental policy expert, formerly having served as a special assistant to President Obama for energy and environment, Aldy offers some big-picture commentary on how the candidates are talking about energy and climate, how their plans compare, and how the conversation is evolving.
This episode marks the start of our Candidate Tracker series, which accompanies RFF’s new online interactive tool. The Candidate Tracker has been developed to compare and contrast the positions of the 2020 presidential candidates from both major political parties on a range of climate- and energy-related topics.
Notable quotes from the podcast:
- “The sharp contrast matters―that each one of these Democratic candidates would place climate clearly on the agenda. That is incredibly different from what the incumbent in the White House who sleeps with a lump of coal at night does … Some of the most aggressive climate and energy plans are coming from candidates who want to do aggressive policy on higher education funding, for reforming the healthcare system, for how we think about financial regulation. There’s a lot of different issues that are competing with them.”―Joseph Aldy (13:36)
- “Virtually every Democratic candidate wants to get to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions between 2045 and 2050. That’s a really ambitious goal, but it’s fascinating how that is common across all of them, and it’s clearly more aggressive than, say, what then-Senator Obama ran on in 2008—wanting to cut emissions 80 percent by 2050. Or what Senator McCain [ran on] that year—to cut emissions 60 percent by 2050.”―Joseph Aldy (5:24)
- “I found myself wishing during the [CNN climate] town hall that there had been an opportunity to ask the candidates about their ‘how’ as much as their ‘what.’ … On some level, all the plans and targets in the world still have to translate into real policy action in order for any of those targets to be achieved. That question of what levers will you use, what strategies will you try, is a really important one.”―Kristin Hayes (15:38)
Resources Radio is a weekly podcast series exploring timely environmental, energy, and natural resources topics. Episodes can be found on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, and Stitcher.
Resources for the Future (RFF) is an independent, nonprofit research institution in Washington, DC. Its mission is to improve environmental, energy, and natural resource decisions through impartial economic research and policy engagement. RFF is committed to being the most widely trusted source of research insights and policy solutions leading to a healthy environment and a thriving economy.
Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed here are those of the individual authors and may differ from those of other RFF experts, its officers, or its directors. RFF does not take positions on specific legislative proposals.
For more information, please see our media resources page or contact Media Relations and Communications Specialist Annie McDarris.
