What I Learned at Congressional Climate Camp | Article

For almost 40 years, EESI has diligently developed and shared educational materials about a wide range of environmental, energy, and climate change topics with policymakers, with a special emphasis on senators, representatives, and staff on Capitol Hill. Congress has an insatiable hunger for information—as well as a need for help organizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and making sense of it—at all times. But there is something special about the start of a new session of Congress. Especially if it involves a change of leadership and the arrival of a new administration.

It is triply exhilarating when that change of leadership and a newly-elected president seem poised to act on climate change...too bad most of us have had to take part in the transition from home. The inability to have a physical presence on Capitol Hill and engage directly with new staff when they need us most really hit EESI hard.

Climate change is happening, though, with little regard to the tragedies and inconveniences of a worldwide pandemic. The country is counting on Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration to quickly get down to business. So we needed a plan to overcome the obstacles of a remote work environment, introduce ourselves to new members and their staff, and provide useful and timely educational resources.

That brings us to Congressional Climate Camp. As far back as August 2020, the plan was to consolidate briefings into monthly supersessions that would be broken up into digestible webcast chunks and written summaries for busy staff. And we would work our way through climate change topics as well as legislative procedure based on our appraisal (informed by outreach and research) of what Congressional staff needed to know and when they needed to know it.

Considering that our fifth and final installment was less than three weeks ago, it might be a little early to offer a definitive determination on the success of Congressional Climate Camp. But we have some good data points. We know that about 1,500 people signed up for at least one session. Staff from more than 100 different House and Senate offices (including committees) watched at least one session in person. Anecdotal feedback has been very positive, and so have responses from scores of post-briefing survey respondents.

What did I learn from taking part in Congressional Climate Camp? Well, to be honest, I learn a lot from all of EESI’s briefings. But if I could share one big takeaway, it would be how many policy options we have when it comes to climate change solutions. Seriously, EESI could host two briefings every week for the rest of 2021 and still not cover everything. We could do a whole series just on green hydrogen, for example, which we discussed during the Federal Policies for High Emitting Sectors session on February 26. We could spend an entire month just talking about the multiple benefits of natural solutions, which we highlighted during the Federal Policies for Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Win-Wins session on April 30. And there is literally no limit to how much I would like to explore building-to-grid integration (covered to some extent during the first four sessions); we will, in fact, continue to explore this fascinating topic later this month.

A corollary to my big takeaway is how many policy levers we have to implement these solutions. Three Congressional Climate Camp briefings focused primarily on legislative procedure: Budget, Appropriations, and Stimulus on January 29, Lessons Learned from Past Congresses and Current Attitudes on Climate on March 26, and Understanding Budget Reconciliation on May 21. For proponents of an all-of-government approach to climate change, there is a lot of information here to work with.

While EESI organized and hosted Congressional Climate Camp, none of it would have been possible, of course, without the help of the 20 experts who served as panelists and countless others who helped us brainstorm topics. We enjoyed working with participants from academia, think tanks, businesses, trade associations, advocacy organizations, and government. Such a wide range of backgrounds and diversity of expertise are also testament to the policy options and legislative procedures available to Congress. Now, with the new information baseline of Congressional Climate Camp, we have a strong foundation for future briefings, fact sheets, articles, and other educational resources to help members and their staff make the most of the moment, put these policies and procedures to use, and act on climate change.

Author: Daniel Bresette

Check out the five-part Congressional Climate Camp series with videos and highlights here:

Congressional Climate Camp #1: Budget, Appropriations, and Stimulus

Congressional Climate Camp #2: Federal Policy to Decarbonize High-Emission Sectors

Congressional Climate Camp #3: Lessons Learned from Past Congresses and Current Public Attitudes on Climate

Congressional Climate Camp #4: Federal Policy for Mitigation and Adaptation Win-Wins

Congressional Climate Camp #5: Understanding Budget Reconciliation