A New Path for U.S. Climate Politics: Choosing Policies That Mobilize Business for Decarbonization

• Published date: 01 September 2019
• Author: Jonas Meckling
• Date: 01 September 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716219862515
• Subject Matter: Prescriptions: Climate Change

82 ANNALS, AAPSS, 685, September 2019

DOI: 10.1177/0002716219862515

A New Path for

U.S. Climate

Politics:

Choosing

Policies That

Mobilize

Business for

Decar-

bonization

By

JONAS MECKLING

862515ANN The Annals of The American AcademyA New Path For U.S. Climate Policy

research-article2019

What policies could mobilize business support for pro-

gressive and durable national climate policy in the

United States? I examine the climate policy experi-

ences of U.S. states and propose that a national clean

energy standard combined with carefully allocated

public investment in clean energy infrastructure and

innovation could mobilize economic interests in sup-

port of decarbonization. Further, I argue that the more

entrenched clean energy and infrastructure become,

the more likely it becomes that comprehensive climate

policies can be passed in the future. This includes per-

formance and deployment mandates beyond the elec-

tricity industry, including in the transport and building

sectors. These initial steps may also help to build a

winning coalition for progressive federal carbon pric-

ing, as opposed to an accommodative coalition in sup-

port of weak carbon pricing.

Keywords: climate policy; carbon pricing; clean

energy; business power; policy feedback

The challenge of climate policy has long been

understood as one of internalizing negative

externalities. In other words, we have viewed

climate policy largely as the need to regulate the

negative effects of fossil fuel production and con-

sumption. Policy proposals have tended to focus

on economically optimal solutions, centered on

carbon pricing in the form of either carbon taxes

or cap-and-trade systems. By and large, econo-

mists see these pricing instruments to be first-

best policy options in terms of cost-effectiveness

Correspondence: meckling@berkeley.edu

Jonas Meckling is an assistant professor of energy and

environmental policy at the University of California,

Berkeley. His latest book is Carbon Coalitions: Business,

Climate Politics, and the Rise of Emissions Trading

(MIT Press 2011). Previously, he served as senior advi-

sor to the German Minister for the Environment.

NOTE: I am grateful for comments by participants of

the Policy Feedback Project Workshop at Harvard

University and the Technology-Policy Feedback

Workshop at ETH Zurich.