NEW YORK — In a bustling conference center overlooking the Hudson River, thousands of climate advocates rose to their feet, cheering as former Vice President Al Gore, 76, exited the stage. He ended his more than two-hour long presentation at his signature “Climate Reality Project” conference by pointing to other countries where the climate moment has meaningfully moved the polls, and he challenged his supporters.
“Will Climate Reality leaders here in the northeastern part of the U.S. have a similar impact on our upcoming election?” Gore said. “This is a moment unlike any other in human history.”
Many of the roughly 3,000 people who attended the conference in New York last weekend said the 2024 presidential election is critical to keep the US on a path of decarbonization. They point to former President Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate for president, who rolled back dozens of climate and environmental rules during his last administration and is expected to do so again, should he take office.
Even more urgent than stomping for President Joe Biden, they said, is deploying the federal money from his large climate packages as quickly as possible.
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“This election feels really pivotable to keep climate action on the menu,” said Maya Nguyen, 22, an environment studies and history double major at Dartmouth College. Since she lives in New Hampshire, a swing state, Nguyen left the conference thinking about how to make others aware of federal climate incentives.
The lead-up to November, Nguyen said, is a time to “take advantage of what we have now.”
Forty-five percent of US adults said in a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll that they’ve become more concerned about climate change in the last year.
In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, the nation’s largest federal investment in renewable energy in history. The IRA has the potential to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change — largely through building infrastructure to accelerate the US economy’s transition off fossil fuels. Gore called the IRA “the most exciting legislation in the history of this issue anywhere in the world.”
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But a new president could slow down efforts to decarbonize the US economy: Trump recently told fossil fuel executives, “I hate wind.”
“There’s a 50-50 chance that … come January, funding doesn’t get out the door,” said Larry Yu, who chairs the City of Somerville’s Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change. “So, there is some urgency.”
The money’s effectiveness at spurring the US transition to clean power hinges on its implementation, and that rollout has been slower than some climate advocates would like.
“That is definitely a big concern that if we don’t get funding for these things soon enough, then the funding is just going to be cut immediately if Biden loses,” said Miro Leeb, 21, a junior at University of Massachusetts Amherst, who started in climate activism by participating in Boston’s youth climate strike in 2019.
Aggressive goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from the electricity sector, require both massive investments in new infrastructure — including transmission lines, utility-scale solar farms, and wind turbines — and somewhere to build it.
Proposals for new infrastructure have, at times, been slowed by neighborhood fights where the energy companies benefiting from IRA dollars intend to build. The fights have ranged from concerns over aesthetics to environmental damage. Heated “not in my backyard” fights have broken out across New England over offshore wind farms, which some fossil fuel advocates have falsely claimed are causing whale deaths, and transmission lines, which some residents have said will hurt wilderness areas.
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Some low-income areas and communities of color, which Biden promised would benefit from the clean energy transition, have also pushed back against plans for new electric substations. In Massachusetts, the state’s ambitious plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050 will essentially require a tripling of the electric grid, and more than 40 new substations have been proposed by the two largest electric utilities.
Gore said in a media interview that legislative solutions are required to ensure the clean energy build-out can move faster; a special commission in Massachusetts is currently working to improve the state’s energy permitting process.
“We really need to be, not just making goals, but delivering on implementing,” said Keith Bergman, a long-time climate advocate in New England who was formerly a town manager in Provincetown.
Gore said he thought Biden has “earned” the climate vote with legislation. Several climate advocates mentioned Biden’s legislative wins in the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which includes billions to fortify the country’s water and transportation systems; $8.7 billion is expected to be spent on strengthening highways, bridges, roads and culverts against extreme weather made worse by climate change.
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However, many advocates at the conference noted their disappointment that the president has not gone further to affect global policy on climate change.
For example, several youth advocates have called for Biden to declare a climate emergency (a small protest on that very topic broke out at the conference during the president’s senior climate advisor John Podesta’s talk). Many advocates also said they were disappointed the president did not keep his campaign promise to ban oil drilling offshore.
On how they might feel when they get into the polling booth in November, several climate activists told the Globe they’re feeling more energized by beating Trump than supporting Biden.
“What’s motivating me to vote is not wanting Trump, and all of his policies, to win,” said Nevia Selmon, a Harvard Divinity School graduate student who has worked in education policy. She previously organized with climate activist organizations, including the youth-led Sunrise Movement.
“I’m just motivated to vote for hope for a better future,” she said.
Erin Douglas can be reached at erin.douglas@globe.com. Follow her @erinmdouglas23.