Resource Type: Evaluation & Measuring Progress

As the founding Director of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (a non-profit) transitions out of leadership, he shares reflections and resources related to cultural strategy and responding to the question, how might we build creative people-power to respond to the social and ecological crises of our times and to advance practices, narratives, and policies for a more liberatory world?

This case study summarizes some of the key points from NY Renews’ evidence-based approach to winning the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act, pulling from interviews with organizers and advocates, coalition documents, and news coverage.

While partisanship remains the predominant dividing line in many views of climate and the environment, there are meaningful differences within party coalitions. Republicans and Republican leaners who describe their political views as moderate or liberal (roughly a third of all Republicans and leaners) are much more likely than conservative Republicans to see local impacts of climate change, support policies to address it and say the federal government is doing too little in areas of environmental protection. Further, younger generations and women in the GOP tend to be more critical of government action on the environment than their older and male counterparts. Republican women also are more supportive of polices aimed at reducing the impacts of climate change than GOP men.             

     
Review of research on the equity implications of a clean energy transition (how such a transition could negatively impact some groups and communities), and ‘just transition’ policies meant to abate those effects. The literature suggests that energy and climate policies and programs must specifically embed equity and social justice within climate change mitigation goals and emphasize commitments to job training and economic development to support those folks adversely affected by the transition away from fossil fuels to new, renewable sources of energy. (As Climate Justice Alliance phrases it, “Transition is inevitable. Justice is not.”)    

For Republicans, belief in global warming per se is less of a sticking point (most think it’s happening, including 47% of conservative Republicans), whereas accepting that it’s human caused remains less common (only 30% of conservative Republicans). This report provides an analysis of public opinion data about the views of Democratic, Independent, and Republican voters registered on global warming, climate and energy policies, and personal collective action. Results show that the majority of registered voters believe that global warming is real (75%) and caused by human action (61%).

This conversation with author and University of Pennsylvania professor Daniel Q. Gillion examines the history of protests in America and how they’ve inspired actual policy change.