Never Impossible: Responding to the U.S. Election
For Nature and the climate, there’s no sugarcoating it: this week’s election in the United States will mean enormous challenges at a time we need to be accelerating and scaling action.
But Mighty Earth’s theory of change is built to withstand exactly these kinds of shifts in politics – and we will continue to drive impact regardless of who is elected. In fact, many of our successes have not depended significantly on U.S. government action – and are therefore not as vulnerable to shifting political winds.
So, while I don’t want to offer false hope or underestimate the battles ahead, we believe that there are still many opportunities to protect and restore wild places around the world and make progress on climate change.
Protecting Nature
On our core issues of international Nature protection and restoration and transforming the protein sector by shifting to regenerative agriculture and sustainable protein, the United States government has played a limited role, and the election is unlikely to have a significant direct impact.
The private sector has been and will continue to be a leading actor positioned to protect Nature in many countries. Businesses have shown their potential to drive massive positive change through their supply chains and their investments. They still need to respond to customers and investors, and do what they can to avert the material risks of climate change and extinction.
Threats to Civil Society
The U.S. Government has been an important voice around the world for freedom of association and speech. Authoritarian governments may become less hesitant to harass or imprison frontline defenders of Nature. Our partners are brave, and we will do our utmost to support them - and use our access to media, companies, and governments to defend them if necessary.
Industrial Decarbonization
While elections can significantly affect government policy, the good news is that decarbonization is heavily baked into the U.S. economy. I expect the federal government may curtail some of its support for clean energy and push to expand fossil fuel exploration. Nonetheless, the economic incentives underpinning decarbonization remain strong – and there are many actions that states, the private sector, and civil society can do to accelerate it. Additionally, trade policies may create unexpected opportunities to encourage decarbonization.
Rewilding
Next week, we will kick off our newest program: to restore keystone wildlife to North America. This effort will be largely focused on state governments. We see this program as an exciting opportunity to drive impact for Nature and create an example of hope regardless of who is in the White House. With success in this program, I believe we can rewild hearts and minds. Stay tuned for more.
Of course, we cannot underestimate the challenges. But what’s clear is that the need for support for private sector and international action has only grown. We will call on you for many kinds of support in coming days and weeks to effectively address this challenge, and hope that you will join us.
