By Arielle Perry, FAU Center for Environmental Studies
Building bipartisan support for climate solutions is necessary to overcome disinformation and achieve lasting change, according to speakers at a panel discussion Thursday at the Climate Correction Conference in Orlando.
Relying entirely on Democratic votes for climate policies has been a “strategic misstep,” said George Behrakis, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Climate Solutions Action Fund, which supports bipartisan climate leadership.
Given the urgency of the climate crisis, “building greater right-of-center support for action and for policies is a genuine imperative,” Behrakis said.
Hosted by VoLo Foundation, the Climate Correction Conference was held March 12–13 at the Celeste Hotel in Orlando. The event featured panel discussions on issues ranging from fast fashion to the role of film and media in inspiring climate action.
During the “Building Towards Bipartisan Solutions” panel, speakers discussed how bipartisan and conservative-led efforts can help to build bridges across political divides and advance climate solutions.
Andrea Yodsampa, CEO and founder of DEPLOY/US, an organization that aims to accelerate bipartisan climate leadership, highlighted how climate change and clean energy have been “misbranded over the years as a left-of-center issue alone” – when, in reality, both Democrats and Republicans care about the issue.
Yodsampa highlighted how unlike Democrats, who have faced pressure from both the environmental movement and left-wing media to combat climate change, Republican policymakers have historically lacked that same kind of pressure from conservative media to exert “ambitious leadership on climate change.”
This is where groups such as DEPLOY/US and other bipartisan and/or conservative-led organizations can come in, according to Yodsampa. Her group, and others like it, work with Republican lawmakers across the country to advance climate change and clean energy solutions.
“They are the messengers who are trusted to have this conversation right-of-center,” Yodsampa said.
To effectively engage conservative and right-of-center stakeholders, and avoid the common misinformation and denial associated with those groups, Behrakis believes supporting conservative and bipartisan organizations is key.
“Empowering organizations like my own and the other organizations that DEPLOY/US supports is absolutely critical to overcoming the disinformation machine that’s come to define our politics on this issue,” Behrakis added.
Arielle Perry is a master’s student in the Environmental Science Program at Florida Atlantic University and is a graduate research assistant at FAU’s Center for Environmental Studies. The center manages The Invading Sea. Banner photo: Another image of the panel discussion (Kimberly Vardeman photo).
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