The American Conservation Coalition, a conservative youth climate group, unveiled a climate policy framework Tuesday that offers a guide to Republican lawmakers as they try to message their budding climate policy agenda.
The group also hopes its framework, the American Climate Contract, will lay a foundation for bipartisan legislation on climate change policies.
“If we’re spending time talking about the Green New Deal and debating the Green New Deal, propping it up or shooting it down, we are wasting time on climate change,” said Benji Backer, the group’s president and co-founder.
“We want to turn the page on the Green New Deal” to a “real tangible framework that moves us into the future,” Backer said in an interview.
The framework calls for the United States to advance policies that “move toward a goal of global net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.” That goal is a position Republican lawmakers have been hesitant to stake out, but Backer said ACC is about “moving the ball forward,” and the 2050 target is both possible and “tangible for the average person.”
Broadly, the contract supports four policy areas: investing in energy innovation, modernizing infrastructure, supporting conservation measures that store carbon, and engaging globally to reduce emissions.
Tuesday’s launch, the same week as Earth Day’s 50th anniversary, focuses on grassroots support from young Republicans and national advocacy organizations, including the Bipartisan Policy Center, the National Wildlife Federation, and Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions.
Within the next two months, ACC will announce support from “more members of Congress than people might expect,” even some who haven’t engaged on climate before, Backer said.
