Can we make climate progress under Trump?

The new administration is staunchly anti-climate, but that doesn't mean we can't make progress. We also share exciting opportunities, interesting articles, and highlight a community member.

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In this newsletter:

1. Trump will take office. What’s next for effective climate action?

2. Share your climate charity ideas!

3. Community spotlight: Jennifer Stratton

4. What we’ve been reading and listening to

5. Job openings and opportunities

6. We’re looking for funding

🐘 Trump will take office. What’s next for effective climate action?

The election of Donald Trump is undoubtedly a major set-back for American climate ambitions. Trump denies the scientific consensus on climate change and used his previous term to leave the Paris agreement, roll back the Clean Power Plan, and attempt to freeze fuel efficiency standards. Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Energy is Chris Wright, a fracking CEO who – perhaps unsurprisingly – denies the existence of a climate crisis.

While that doesn’t seem to bode well for tackling global warming, we don’t have the luxury to wait for an administration willing to take bold action on climate. Instead, we must ask ourselves what impactful levers still exist for tackling climate change in the current political wind. Luckily, there are still things that we can do:

• 💰 Economics always win. Solar and wind are the cheapest source of electricity. Almost all projects requesting to be connected to the grid are clean electricity and battery storage. Electric vehicles are seeing unprecedented growth. The new administration can’t rewind the clock on progress and innovation. Let’s continue driving down the price and increasing adoption of this tech. (Heatmap)

• 🌏 Look beyond borders. The US emits 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but is only expected to emit 6% to 12% of the emissions during the rest of the century. Climate and energy groups expect that the Trump administration will increase US emissions by about 20%.¹ That’s roughly another 2% of all global emissions. Getting climate wins in Europe, Canada, Asia and elsewhere remains important. (Founders Pledge)

• 🚏 Use tariffs. Trump and his allies have been staunch supporters of tariffs, which may make it much more tractable to tax the carbon pollution of imports, similar to Europe’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. (E&E news)

• ⚡ Deregulate clean energy. American Republicans have long pushed for deregulating sectors. Reducing the regulatory burden on clean energy – where desirable – could make it much cheaper and easier to get geothermal projects of the ground. In November, two geothermal bills passed the House with all Republicans voting in favour.

• 🏛️ Work with states. During the first Trump term and G.W. Bush’s administrations, US states increased their climate ambitions. They can do so again. (CCI)

🗣 Share your climate charity ideas!

Ambitious Impact (AIM) is looking for your ideas for promising climate solutions and charity ideas with strong co-benefits for humans and/or animals. The AIM research team will identify the most promising interventions to recommend to their charity incubation program. Submit your ideas via this form (~ 2 minutes).²

🏔 Community spotlight: Jennifer Stratton

In July of last year, Jennifer Stretton launched Mieux Donner, a French non-profit helping people find the most effective charities to donate to. She has a background in geography, marketing, business consultancy, and mountain guiding! Jen began retraining as an International Mountain Leader, pursuing her passion for the outdoors. For the last seven years she has split her time between guiding multi-day hiking trips in the Alps, back-country ski trips in the Arctic, and marketing work.

Jennifer Stratton in the Arctic

Ruben: What are your motivations for co-founding Mieux Donner?

Jennifer: I’ve always been passionate about ethics and the idea of ‘living a good life.’ For the past 12 years, I’ve been practicing Zen Buddhism, which has deeply influenced my perspective on life and altruism.

In 2021, I read The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer, which introduced me to the concept of effective altruism. It was a transformative moment—I realized that my altruistic actions could have a far greater impact than I’d ever imagined. Motivated by this, I began researching impactful careers and took the 10% Pledge, committing to donate 10% of my income to the world’s most effective charities.

A year ago, I was accepted into the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program, where I co-launched Mieux Donner. I was driven by the desire to make a positive contribution to combating climate change—an issue close to my heart, particularly as I live in the Alps and witness the glaciers retreating year after year.

Mieux Donner’s mission is to maximize the positive impact we can achieve by raising as much money as possible for the world’s most effective charities. We gather research from leading independent charity evaluators specializing in global health, animal welfare, and climate change. Using this data, we curate a shortlist of charities that deliver the greatest positive impact per euro donated.

Our methodology is rooted in the principles of the effective altruism movement, which emphasizes using reason and scientific evidence to guide altruistic decision-making. This approach ensures that every donation contributes to creating meaningful and measurable change.

What is the biggest challenge or thing you would like to see differently in the world?

It might sound idealistic, but I truly believe the world would benefit from more collaboration and kindness. We already have the resources and knowledge to address some of the biggest challenges we face—climate change, global poverty, and animal suffering. Yet, we fall short because we don’t work together effectively, either on an individual or global scale.

This lack of collaboration is deeply frustrating because the consequences will affect us all. The potential to solve these problems exists; what’s missing is the collective will to act decisively and cooperatively.

What does effective environmentalism mean to you?

For me, it is a movement of individuals committed to making the greatest possible positive impact on the environment during their lifetimes. This involves leveraging their careers, donations, and influence to identify and pursue the most impactful ways to drive meaningful change.

For me, this translates into raising as much money as possible for the most effective climate charities through Mieux Donner. Personally, it means taking pragmatic steps to reduce my own footprint. As a guide, it involves educating the groups I lead about how they can not only minimize their carbon footprint but also think beyond it—understanding how they can use their careers and finances to create significant, lasting positive change.

📚 What we’ve been reading and listening to

New resources

• Effective Thesis has re-vamped its climate change page. A useful resource for students or researchers interested in making a significant positive impact through research.

Interesting articles (Yes, that’s quite a few this month!)

• Will a food carbon tax lead to more animals being slaughtered? A quantitative model (Soemano Zeijlmans, also writing this newsletter). Theoretically, a carbon tax will make beef more expensive, so people might eat more chicken, which would be bad for animal welfare. Luckily, this doesn’t seem to be the case. (Full pre-print on SSRN.)

• How Madrid built its metro cheaply by rewarding fast and inexpensive delivery, streamlining planning, using tried-and-tested designs, and having a pipeline of projects to build state capacity (Ben Hopkinson, Works in Progress)

• No, kerosene did not save the sperm whale. In fact, sperm whale catches were about ten times higher after the introduction of kerosene lanterns. What worked: government bans on whaling and the subsequent cultivation of jojoba. (Ed Conway, Material World)

• Solar Geoengineering: The Global South’s Stake in a High-Stakes Debate (Rose M. Mutiso)

• Using ChatGPT is not bad for the environment. And a plea to think seriously about climate change without getting distracted (Andy Masley)

• IEA report on The Future of Geothermal Energy. Geothermal is at a critical juncture to drive down costs and drill deeper. Recommendations include addressing development risks, permitting, and environmental and social concerns.

• Deforestation in the Amazon has halved in the last few years (Hannah Ritchie, Sustainability by numbers)

• Microplastics and PFAS Are Dominating Headlines, But Lead is Probably Worse (Lee Crawfurd, CGD)

• Near-term benefits from investment in climate adaptation complement long-term economic returns from emissions reduction. Reduce emissions to avert long-term damage. Adapt to reduce short-term damage (Duan et al., Communications Earth & Environment).

• Using Pull Finance for Market-driven Infrastructure and Asset Resilience. How a simple change to R&D funding can make climate adaptation funding much more effective (Ben Stephans & Sebastian Chaskel, FAS)

Podcasts

• Sam Bowman on why housing still isn't fixed and what would actually work (80,000 Hours podcast). Many fixes for building more houses can also work for tackling climate change or other environmental challenges.

• Cameron Meyer Shorb on dismantling the myth that we can’t do anything to help wild animals (80,000 Hours podcast)

👩‍💼 Job openings and opportunities

We are highlighting some outstanding opportunities to make a positive difference with your careers. These positions are vetted by Effective Environmentalism and 80,000 Hours and are not sponsored.

📤 Even if your dream job is not on this list, consider sharing these opportunities in your network or forward the job description to someone who would be interested.

Worldwide

• Applications are open for the AIM Research Program (April-June cohort), a fully-funded 12-week program providing you with the skills, mentorship, and tools you need to produce impactful, decision-relevent research.³ (Deadline: February 2nd)

Asia

• Climate Lead/Head at Asia Philanthropy Circle (Singapore)

• Senior Policy Specialist, Asia at the Good Food Institute (remote)

Europe

• Fellowship Event Freelancer and Fellowship Event Intern at the School for Moral Ambition (Amsterdam, NL)

• Senior Policy Manager in Climate Protection at Future Matters (Brussels, BE)

• The Impactful Policy Careers Accelerator is recruiting people for a fully-funded, intensive programme that prepares talented individuals to create meaningful change through policy careers, focusing on sustainable food systems and agricultural transformation. (Deadline: January 19th, so apply now!)

United States

• Food Policy Pathways is a newly-launched non-profit helping talented people pursue impactful careers in food policy within city, state, and federal governments.

• Research Professional, Market Shaping Accelerator at Development Innovation Lab, University of Chicago

Upcoming events

• 21-23 February 2025: EA Global: Bay Area 2025, Oakland, CA, USA
  Application deadline: 2 February 2025

• 14-16 March 2025: EAGxCDMX 2025, Ciudad de México
  Application deadline: 24 February 2025

• 25-27 April 2025: EAGxNordics 2025, Oslo

• 6-8 June 2025: EA Global: London 2025, UK

EAG(x) conferences bring people together to foster collaboration on projects and address global challenges.

💶 Effective Environmentalism is looking for funding

Effective Environmentalism is currently a volunteer-run initiative. We would like to scale up our activities to more effectively grow a global community of people and organisations tackling environmental issues as effectively as possible, starting early 2025. Financial support for two salaries would help us to devote more time to growing the field of effective environmentalism.

If you are a donor or work for a grant-making organisation, please get in touch.

1. That’s an average taken by Founders Pledge of estimates by Carbon Brief, Energy Innovation LLC, the REPEAT Project, and Michael Thomas. See page 6 of this document.

2. Transparency statement: Soemano Zeijlmans, one of the authors of this newsletter, works as a contractor for Ambitious Impact. This is not a sponsored announcement.

3. Transparency statement: Soemano Zeijlmans, one of the authors of this newsletter, works as a contractor for Ambitious Impact and previously participated in this research program. This is not a sponsored announcement.