Does Climate Change Still Matter in a Pandemic?

On this week’s episode of Political Climate we discuss: will leaders seize the moment to tackle more than one crisis?

Julia Pyper April 02, 2020

Julia Pyper

Senior Editor
Greentech Media

Julia Pyper is a Senior Editor at Greentech Media covering the energy transition. She is also the host and producer of the Political Climate podcast. She previously reported for E&E Publishing, and has covered clean energy and climate change issues across the U.S. and abroad, including in India, Haiti, Israel and the Maldives. She holds degrees from McGill and Columbia Universities. Find her on Twitter @JMPyper.

Climate change didn’t stop as the world turned its attention to combating the coronavirus.

On this week's episode of Political Climate, we discuss whether leaders will seize this moment to tackle more than one crisis.

The $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act offers no explicit support for the energy sector. Will Congress use the next stimulus bill to accelerate the green economy as part of the COVID-19 recovery? If so, when and how? Or will climate-friendly stimulus measures fall by the wayside for now?

Plus, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it will allow companies to break pollution laws during the pandemic and did not set a timeline to start enforcing the laws again. We discuss how this compares to the crisis response of past administrations.

We end with some tips on how to weather COVID-19 and related economic troubles, including a breakdown of the financial support available to cleantech startups under the recently passed CARES Act.