It used to be that Earth Day was just a nice day to get out into the community and pick up trash with the kids, or go talk to school kids about earth science, and to talk about climate change as something in process but a long way off.
Then. Mother Nature roared. Extreme heat, floods, wildfires, hurricanes and tornadoes accelerated and intensified, including in places that hadn’t experienced them in generations, if ever before.
Now, government agencies (and corporate leaders) are expediting their sustainability initiatives and moving those initiatives and teams from the basement to the C-suite, according to a new study by Deloitte. Watching communities be devastated by extreme climate events has a way of focusing attention, too. Then, there’s the $3 trillion in funding and incentives from the combined Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and CHIPS & Science Act accessible to address these issues.
The convergence of Mother Nature’s roar and the federal government’s massive incentives and investments in climate mitigation, adaptation and the clean energy transition seems to have pivoted the entire economy in realtime. The Justice40 component that requires 40% of the benefits to go to populations that have historically been left behind or at risk means that more development and jobs are going into rural areas than before too.
Are the people needing to make these decisions – and fast – ready, willing and able to do so?
This new study by Deloitte, of 435 sustainability-climate-related top leaders from federal, state, and local government agencies, found that federal, state and local governments across the U.S. are centralizing their efforts to go after and allocate these funds.
Time of the essence, both because Mother Nature roars on, and because the political winds may shift in November potentially putting monies not already spent at risk.
Deloitte says their study is designed “To assess the progress of government agencies in implementing the sustainability, climate, equity, and clean energy goals outlined in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and recent federal executive orders.” It assesses how these agencies are doing that are tasked with allocating over $500 billion over the next decade to achieve those goals. They dub the relevant leaders “CxOs.”
The study found that, “CxOs have a broad mandate encompassing decarbonizing operations, bolstering the agency’s climate resiliency, inculcating climate literacy in the workforce, and embedding environmental justice. Most CxOs say their agencies are on track to decarbonize at least a few operational elements. However, progress toward other sustainability objectives has been sluggish.”
Regional nuances
Every jurisdiction in the country has its own needs and priorities, based in part on its topography, as well as its economics. Naturally, coastal communities will be more focused on sea-level rise risks, and communities that have been victims of more extreme weather events will be more focused on resilience, for example.
Communities where fossil fuels dominate the economy, such as in West Virginia, Texas and North Dakota, will have different priorities and political pressures than say, California. That could partially explain why Deloitte’s study found that 40% of local government climate-sustainability leaders characterize their agencies as having “a decentralized approach to climate action, lack a dedicated climate team, and have different departments pursuing independent initiatives.”
At the state and federal level, 65% reported having a centralized approach. The key is budget though, as well as teams, and Deloitte found that “32% of federal and just 14% of state agencies have allocated a dedicated budget to empower their climate teams.”
However they’re doing it, deals are being made.
Follow the money. Inflation Reduction Act drives the building of factories, creating new jobs in rural areas
The nonpartisan, nonprofit organization E2 found 301 clean energy projects worth over $120+ billion in 41 states announced (to date) since the Inflation Reduction Act, which will create 103,986 jobs.
E2 reports that, from the Inflation Reduction Act, “More than 1 out of every 4 new large-scale announcements are in rural areas,” including: “one of the biggest solar panel factories in the western hemisphere” in Dalton, GA; “a factory for a new kind of battery and creating 750 new jobs in the heart of coal country” in Weirton, W.V.; and that, “Cummins is investing $1.9 to build a commercial truck battery factory which is expected to create 2,000 jobs with an average annual salary of $66,000 – about $20,000 more than the current average salary in the state” in Marshall County, Miss.
In addition, other major projects in various states will create tens of thousands of jobs in those states. These include, according to E2, 8 major projects in Arizona that will create 19,000 jobs and add $6.8 billion to the state’s GDP, plus, “tens of billions more in new wages, tax revenue, and economic growth annually once projects are up and running.”
In Georgia, E2 reports that, “19 major projects will create nearly 37,000 jobs, (and) add $14 billion to GA GDP. In Michigan, E2 highlights “18 major projects (that) will create nearly 28,000 jobs, add $9.7 billion to MI GDP. And, in North Carolina, E2 identified “9 major projects (that) will create nearly 30,000 jobs, add $10.2 billion to NC GDP, as well as 10 that are estimated to create over 8,000 jobs in New York, boosting the state’s GDP by $3.2 billion.
Therefore, government agencies are aggressively applying for these funds and incentives, revising their strategic plans to comply, and generally seizing the opportunities to leverage these incentives to increase their climate resilience and achieve other economic and infrastructure goals.
They may be going about it inconsistently, and some more than others, but there’s momentum, according to these and other sources, such as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg, and Michele Mueller of the Michigan’s DOT.
Let’s see if it’s fast enough.