Forget saving the planet. Clean energy interests sharpen a different message: Money and jobs

WASHINGTON (AP) — Saving the planet is so 2024. Clean energy leaders across the globe are now tailoring their messages to emphasize the greener side of green: wealth-building. It's an idea that sells far better in the new world of nationalism and tycoon leaders.

Messaging from the U.S. renewable energy industry and the United Nations on climate change has typically focused on the urgent need to cut greenhouse gas emissions for the sake of environmental and human health. To bolster the argument, they cite record-shattering heat around the world, the frequent climate disasters costing billions of dollars and the human toll of it all.

But a sharper emphasis on profit potential has become evident as President Donald Trump stormed into office with a flurry of rollbacks to clean energy initiatives and an emphatic declaration of plans to “unleash” oil, gas and mining. In a lobbying blitz in Washington this week, solar, wind, hydropower and other clean-energy interests touted their role in a “robust American energy and manufacturing economy” and sported lapel pins that said “American energy dominance” — a favorite Trump phrase.

Meanwhile, in a major policy speech Thursday in Brazil, the U.N.'s top climate official played up the $2 trillion flowing into clean-energy projects and recalled a friend telling him that appealing to people’s “better angels” only goes so far.

That friend, according to U.N. Climate Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, added: “In the great horserace of life ... ‘always back self-interest ... what’s in it for me.' ”

It's not that clean energy backers haven't made the case before. But a different landscape, especially in the U.S., stands to make it more potent.

“It’s a very winning message for outreach to conservatives because it’s really true,” said former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, a South Carolina Republican who founded the conservative climate group RepublicEN.org. “If we play our cards right and lead the world to this, we can create a lot of wealth, create a lot of jobs here in America.”

Inglis pointed to Elon Musk's empire-building on electric cars, solar panels and batteries.

"When right-of-center people hear, ’you know, you can you make a profit at this' then it makes sense. Otherwise, it’s like, why are people giving stuff away?" Inglis said.

Jobs especially have long been a big selling point for solar and wind energy and electric cars, but there's a push to not think of self-interest as a dirty word — and instead to harness it, United Nations officials said. When Stiell mentioned the $2 trillion in his speech for clean energy, he called it "unstoppable because of the colossal scale of economic opportunity it presents.”

Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer, who is also a professor of international affairs, said climate change is such a difficult problem, "if some people feel the need to cater to narrower self-interests which can be bundled into a solution to the problem, why not?”

In letters and at more than 100 congressional meetings this week, industry leaders from the Solar Energy Industries Association, Oceantic Network and other organizations appealed to keep crucial tax incentives in place so their projects can be globally competitive.

The appeal targets lawmakers who might dismiss climate change but be open to an economic rationale, said Jessie Stolark, executive director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, which spearheaded a letter.

“In the past administration, obviously, we emphasized the common interest around climate mitigation,” Stolark said. “The messaging with this current administration and with the Republicans is shifting more to that energy piece, the economic piece, the jobs piece.

“I think you want to meet an audience where they are, what’s important to them, what’s going to drive the conversation forward.”

Liz Beardsley, senior policy counsel at the U.S. Green Building Council that was part of the sweeping lobbying effort, said the economy has always been a core component of its messages, and that “doing good is also good for business.”

To Lisa Sachs, director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, messaging that climate efforts were strictly for the planet was actually disingenuous.

“The honesty and coherence of the business and financial sectors in making the economic case for the transition is refreshing, at least, after years of doublespeak, greenwashing and confusion,” Sachs said. “It’s not a perfect strategy from a climate or social perspective, as the private sector cannot on its own fully decarbonize the economy ... But under this administration, it’s probably our best bet for progress.”

President Trump may not be reachable, but his Energy and Interior secretaries are and they have power, said Frank Maisano, a longtime Washington spokesman for energy interests from oil and gas to wind and batteries.

It's time for a change, said Joanna Depledge, a climate historian at Cambridge University in England: “Banging on about the catastrophic climate crisis is obviously doing no good at all.”

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St. John reported from Detroit.

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Associated Press reporter Tammy Webber contributed to this report.

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Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

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Seth Borenstein And Alexa St. John, The Associated Press