For Progress on Climate and Energy in 2025, Think Local

With its sprawling canopy of magnolia, dogwood, southern pine and oak trees, Atlanta is known as the city in the forest. The lush vegetation helps offset the pollution from the commuter traffic as people pour in and out of the state capital every day, so that city dwellers can breathe fresh, clean air.

“When you fly into the city of Atlanta, most people are like, what is this? I can’t even see the city because I see trees,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens tells me.

The mayor’s office has been buying up land, laying out trails and protecting the green terrain from development. It’s just one small part of the city’s ambitious climate plan that ranges from prioritizing the electrification of vehicles to building out rooftop solar, in the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030.

Those emissions are directly responsible for the global heating of our planet, which is causing changing climate patterns and more frequent, unpredictable extreme weather events. Cutting those emissions will help us avoid many of the worst impacts on our health, homes, safety and livelihoods. There are some steps we can take in our own homes and lives, such as installing heat pumps and properly recycling our waste, but to make a difference on the scale needed it’s the job of businesses and governments everywhere to reduce emissions, with our nation’s leaders at the helm.

Dickens, who drives a Rivian EV, is far from the only American mayor committed to a green future for his city. In fact, he belongs to a bipartisan network of 350 “Climate Mayors” across the country, representing 46 states and 60 million American citizens.

Cities function as “innovation and solution hubs” for tackling climate change, Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix tells me over email. “Because we are the closest level of government to our constituents, regardless of who occupies the White House, local leaders are expected to advance meaningful solutions and provide critical services.” 

Cities also tend to have a “progressive nature,” says Dickens, which can make it easier to implement climate-forward policies than at state or federal level.

That’s not to say that many states don’t also have ambitious climate goals of their own. California, for instance, has a long history of climate leadership such as setting emission reduction targets back in 2007, implementing ambitious energy standards, establishing its own clean air regulations long before the Clean Air Act and promoting early adoption of EVs. Now it’s working both with other US states and local governments abroad in countries with a similar climate to share its learnings.

“California has a strong track record for setting ambitious targets and then meeting or exceeding them,” says Wade Crowfoot, the state’s natural resources secretary.

The optimism and ambition of leaders such as Dickens, Gallego and Crowfoot will take on a new importance starting in 2025 as Donald Trump returns for a second four-year term as US president with clearly stated intentions to roll back climate goals and environmental protections.

As well as continuing to work towards their own existing goals, local governments will soon have to do double duty filling a void left by the outgoing Biden administration. The good news is, they are ready.

In a statement issued the day following the presidential election, an expansive coalition of political leaders, including the US Climate Alliance, America Is All In and Climate Mayors issued a unified statement. “America’s climate-leading states, cities, Tribal nations, businesses and institutions will not waver in our commitment to confronting the climate crisis, protecting our progress and relentlessly pressing forward,” they said.

“No matter what, we’ll fight for the future Americans demand and deserve, where our communities, our health, our environment and our economy all thrive. We will not turn back.”

If you’re among the 83% of Americans that the Pew Research Center identified in a report published last month as caring about tax credits to make your home more energy-efficient, or among the 73% who feel sad about what is happening to the Earth, this might feel like heartening news. It shows that there’s hope to be found, when many need it the most.

Countering the coming storms

Even though 2024 was the hottest year on record with climate impacts being felt in the form of extreme weather events all over the US — not least Hurricane Milton — Trump has made it clear that his plans don’t include prioritizing scientifically backed policies that will result in a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Quite the opposite. Trump has surrounded himself with climate skeptics and has been vocal about his intention to “drill, baby, drill.” It’s likely that he will once again withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change, and in doing so forfeit its position as a leader on climate action on the world stage. 

Domestically, there’s concern that Trump could roll back elements of climate-forward legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (from which he’s already threatened to claw back unspent funds) and the Clean Air Act, which dates back to the 1960s, as well as popular policies such as green tax credits. His first year in office is likely to shift the country away from, rather than toward, protections for people’s homes, livelihoods and health from the effects of the climate crisis.

That said, it’s not all doom and gloom — not by a long shot. Clean energy has bipartisan support and has reached a tipping point where it is as cheap as, if not cheaper than energy from fossil fuels in most cases. But there are clearly challenges ahead.

“Will there be conflict?” says Crowfoot. “Absolutely.” 

Around 50% of California is federal land that the Trump administration is likely to want to tap for fossil fuel development, which could spark a fight. Already in California, the state legislature held a special hearing to allocate legal funds that may be needed to protect local climate laws if Trump should mount an attack.

But Crowfoot is buoyed by the many positives he sees. For example, a win on Nov. 5, the same day Trump was elected, when Californians voted to secure a $10 billion bond to fund climate resilience, protect clean drinking water and prevent catastrophic wildfires. Then there’s the fact that clean energy is now so cost effective that Texas, a famously red state, brought even more solar and wind online last year than California.

“That’s not a race we want to lose to Texas, because we pride ourselves on renewable energy deployment,” he says. But, he adds, it goes to show that even places not known to support climate action acknowledge that renewables expansion makes good economic sense.

Likewise, many of the biggest beneficiaries of Biden-era climate-forward legislation, including the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, are businesses and residents in red states. This legislation and the tax credits they’ve spawned have proved that what is good for the climate is also good for jobs, for homes and for people’s wallets.

It’s not just about climate change either, says Rachel Cleetus, policy lead at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “More and more people are starting to recognize that this transition away from fossil fuels is about delivering clean air, clean water.” 

The combined economic and public health benefits people are experiencing right now are garnering further support for a range of policies.

“Widespread tree planting to absorb carbon, requiring oil and gas companies to seal methane leaks, tax credits for businesses who develop carbon capture, and credits for Americans who improve their home energy efficiency are steps that are favored by majorities of Republicans and Democrats alike,” says Alec Tyson, Pew’s associate director for science and society, who worked on the survey published in December into American views on climate and energy policy.

The hope among many in climate circles is that the undeniable benefits these policies bring, along with the support they receive from Republicans, Democrats and the wider electorate will make it hard for Trump to justify repealing them or rolling them back. Previous experience shows that it’s also a lot harder to roll major pieces of legislation back than Trump would like, says Cleetus. 

She envisages states using litigation to hold Trump accountable, just as they are using it to hold fossil fuel companies accountable. “This administration will be taken to court again and again if they try to run roughshod over the laws of the country,” she says.

At city and state levels, there are also many laws that the federal government simply cannot touch. From Georgia to California, state and city leaders are determined not to be thrown off course by what happens elsewhere. 

Dickens’ eyes are firmly fixed on pursuing a clean future for his city. “Our goals don’t change,” he says. “Our strategies may, but… regardless of who’s in the White House, we have our commitment to have 100% clean energy for Atlanta by 2035.”

There’s a certain amount of safety in numbers too. If presented with resistance or a lack of engagement at the federal level, he adds, mayors across the country will unite to push for change (“that’s what the Climate Mayors group is for”). He remains hopeful that the incoming leaders will be able to recognize the job creation and economic benefits of the clean energy transition – a view that California’s Crowfoot shares.

“Our governor has said, we’re going to have an open hand, not a closed fist, to the Trump administration,” Crowfoot says. 

Lofty goals and ‘bright spots’

Since the November election, the Biden administration has displayed a similar sense of wariness, pouring its energy into distributing outstanding funds promised under the IRA and attempting to futureproof the US against attempts to renege on pledges to reduce emissions, which could have repercussions on a global scale.

In the dying days of 2024 — the week before Christmas and the month before the inauguration of a new administration — President Biden submitted a new, more ambitious climate commitment (known as a nationally determined contribution, or NDC) on behalf of the country under the Paris Agreement. He pledged that the US would do everything in its power to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 61% to 66% by 2035 from 2005 levels.

That may seem delusional, given the incoming administration’s antagonism to such goals. But Biden and his team were keen to impress that they’re thinking about the long run, beyond what might happen in the next presidential term.

“[We’re] not deterred in the slightest by the fact that we’ve got some headwinds here in Washington DC – that’s not going to take us off course,” said White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi in a press briefing on the day of the NDC announcement. “This is a North Star that we’ve set for a decade from now, and we will absolutely get there.”

Both implicitly and explicitly, the new commitments signify the Biden-Harris administration passing the baton to America’s cities, states, tribes, businesses, academics, activists and citizens. These subnational governments, groups and individuals have long been at the forefront of climate action in the US, regardless of who has been in the White House.

“There’s so many bright spots,” says Cleetus. 

In the absence of federal support, subnational leaders will step up to support the NDC, she adds. Last September, researchers from the University of Maryland published a study that showed that even without federal support, ambitious actions from states, cities and businesses can achieve a 48% to 60% reduction by 2035.

“We’re confident in America’s ability to rally around this new climate goal, because while the United States federal government, under Donald Trump, may put climate action on the back burner, the work to contain climate change is going to continue in the United States,” said John Podesta, Biden’s senior climate adviser, appearing beside Zaidi in the White House briefing. “That’s not wishful thinking. It’s happened before.”

Like Podesta, who appeared during the briefing with a poster for climate justice behind him, others across the US climate movement are experiencing a moment of deja vu. They’re gearing up to mount a resistance to Trump’s anti-science policymaking as they have before, and that once again will likely see their ranks swell with people passionate about securing a better future for the planet. 

“I keep telling myself and others to remember that 2019 was the height of the global climate movement,” says Margaret Klein Salamon, a former clinical psychologist who is now executive director of the Climate Emergency Fund. “That was during a Trump administration.”

Progress continued when Trump was president the first time, and when similar leaders were elected in Brazil and other countries, says Crowfoot. Out of the ashes of the last Trump presidency was born an administration that came into power with a plan to prioritize climate.

An analysis in March last year by climate and energy website Carbon Brief estimated that electing Donald Trump over a Democrat opponent would result in an additional 4 billion tons of carbon emissions. It’s undeniably a significant amount, but many climate activists share the view that neither party is reacting adequately given the existential threat the climate crisis poses.

“We have just not seen, even under the Biden administration, that transition away from fossil fuels,” says Kleetus. “You can’t just build out clean energy and also have fossil fuels expanding. And unfortunately, this incoming administration is pretty much beholden to fossil fuel interests.”

Harnessing hope

The scientific reality is that no matter who is in the Oval Office, America is going to continue to feel the impacts of the climate crisis over the next four years, and it will take more than presidential power to combat it. Extreme heat, hurricanes, wildfires and floods will not cease because Trump refuses to acknowledge the harm caused by greenhouse gas emissions. 

There are people around the country who are going to need and demand that policymakers act in their best interests to protect them and their homes, says Kleetus. 

Many of the people who voted for Trump, she adds, will be those who end up hardest hit when climate impacts come knocking down their doors. It’s the responsibility of the president to think about disaster and emergency response for the hardest hit areas — many of which are traditionally red states such as Florida and Louisiana. 

Moments of crisis will likely serve as flashpoints for the climate movement and impacted citizens to demand accountability from the president and his allies in government and business. “We have an opportunity to harness those moments and focus the public attention on this emergency, and particularly on who is to blame,” says Klein Salamon. 

Simultaneously, we’re watching the US insurance market be disrupted in real time by climate change, with nonrenewal rates soaring in at-risk regions, which will be on Trump to handle. “That is something that requires attention,” says Cleetus. “It cannot be postponed. It’s a pocketbook issue for many, many households in the United States.”

Over the next few weeks, there’s a certain amount of waiting and seeing what actions Trump will actually follow through on once he takes office. But it’s also not too early for people to nail their colors to the mast. “Once an inauguration happens and people are in place, we want to already have our vocal majority behind that saying climate is of importance,” says Dickens.

Many across the country may be feeling a sense of trepidation or even dread right now about what is to come. But Klein Salamon, who has written a book about climate anxiety, urges people to sit non-judgmentally with the pain and fear they feel around climate change. “Those feelings are critically important,” she says. “They are a message for you that says, this is a terrible situation, we need to deal with this immediately and at scale.”

As for Crowfoot, he views hope not as a choice, but as a discipline. By taking action in our own communities and political systems, we contribute to the global effort while also improving our own lives and livelihoods. “This is a crisis of global proportion, but it has remarkable people around the world committed to solving it.”