🔗 Share this article

During formal UN press conferences, in swanky auditoriums and at sticky progressive celebrations, one word was on everyone’s lips at this year’s New York Climate Week: affordability.

The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, stated that under President Trump the United States is “reverting to commonsense energy policies that focus on affordability”. The former energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, said Democrats must center on renewable power’s ability to shrink power bills to win elections. And supporters of the likely soon-to-be New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, trumpeted their initiatives to link green policies with actions to cut city residents’ rent and make transit affordable.

The effort to link daily cost issues to global warming is longstanding. The idea was a central part of the progressive climate plan, a forward-thinking policy platform popularized by youth-led climate group the Sunrise Movement and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018. Joe Biden adopted the framing in the White House, naming his signature green carbon-cutting policy the Inflation Reduction Act, from 2022.

Now, as energy costs rise around the country, Americans on every part of the political spectrum are presenting their energy and climate proposals as methods to safeguard ordinary people’s pocketbooks.

Essential Updates

• Uncovered: Europe losing 600 football pitches of wildlife and farmland a day
• UK fracking ban to be brought forward as Labour counters Reform promise
• Israel’s ecocide in Gaza delivers this signal: even if we stopped dropping bombs, you couldn’t live here

In Focus

Annually, Climate Week in New York City brings together public leaders, business representatives, scholars and campaigners for a vast array of climate-focused events, timed to align with the United Nations general assembly.

This year, the Trump administration’s environment-deregulating campaign threw a massive shadow over the event. In speeches through the week, White House officials aimed to peg its rule-cutting agenda as a win to lower Americans’ bills, with Trump labeling green energy a “fraud” and Wright declaring: “The more people have gotten into supposed climate action, the more expensive their energy has become.”

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

It’s a strategy that Jennifer Granholm, who acted as US energy secretary under Biden, said she expected 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 significantly Granholm’s left also advocated a focus on affordability in the climate fight. But many demanded more far-reaching solutions that provide more immediate benefits. Instead of merely adjusting with the tax code to incentivize green technology expansion – a hallmark of Biden’s climate efforts – politicians should prioritize less technical, “green economic populist” initiatives such as fare-free transit and the build-out of low-carbon public housing.

“These kinds of programs do have emissions-reduction benefits, but they’re extremely important for starting to build up a broad support [who have] faith 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 left-wing who achieved 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 dance party at the renowned Sounds of Brazil music venue to celebrate the candidate’s success.

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

Messaging is critical, but merely talking about affordability is not enough, Alexa Avilés, a New York City council member and democratic socialist, told the Guardian at the Mamdani event. Trump, for instance, has not delivered to deliver on his promise of lowering bills as giving massive benefits to oil giants and other corporations. And many Democrats are also culpable of prioritizing their corporate donors’ interests, Avilés said.

“Some people talk about working-class folks, but then they create policies that are designed for the rich. We’ve been living with that disappointment for a long time,” she said. “We need to focus on truly providing relief to people. And we see that when we really prioritize people over profit, people respond to that. People can discern who is sincere.”

Further Reading:

• US energy department tightens rules on workers’ use of climate crisis language
• Trump administration allocating $625m to resurrect dying coal industry
• Los Angeles vowed to host the Olympics without breaking the bank and environment. Can it?