U.S. should brag on climate progress, GOP senator says
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Axios' Amy Harder interviews Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) in Salt Lake City. Photo: Kinser Studios on behalf of Axios
Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah says politicians should be louder about their climate progress.
Why it matters: The Conservative Climate Caucus founder's comments offer a contrast to criticism from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and world leaders as the U.N. summit unfolds in Belém, Brazil.
Driving the news: "I think we need to be bolder bragging about our success over the last dozen or even 15 years," Curtis said Thursday at an Axios Live event in Salt Lake City.
- "We should not be ashamed to go shout from the housetops," continued Curtis, who canceled plans to attend the talks because of the just-ended government shutdown.
- "The way we do things is actually doing more for reducing emissions around the world than any of you, all of you combined," said Curtis, one of the few Republicans in Washington to openly support climate action.
Reality check: The U.S. has reduced emissions over the last 15 years.
- That's thanks to declining coal electricity alongside parallel growth in zero-emitting renewables and natural gas, which emits half as much carbon dioxide as coal.
- Natural gas still fuels climate change as a greenhouse gas, though.
- That general downward trendline appears to be ticking up this year, the Global Carbon Project reported this week.
Zoom in: Critics say the success over the last 15 years is in spite of President Trump, both his first term and his current one.
Friction point: Curtis, who recently hosted Energy Secretary Chris Wright at his fourth-annual Conservative Climate Summit, sought to walk a fine line.
- "I would love the administration to talk about this in a different way," Curtis said. "If we're honest, we do have a big bend right now against wind and solar. That is unfortunate coming from the administration."
- "But the other signals are not — nuclear, battery storage, geothermal. All of those things are in a really good place."
The bottom line: "Quite frankly, that is one of my jobs — to navigate that dialogue and tamp down things that are just not right, not realistic."
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the Global Carbon Project (not the International Energy Agency) reported an upward tick in climate change.
