(Bloomberg) -- Sally Jewell, who served as US Interior secretary from 2013 to 2017, said the climate stakes of the election in November “could not be higher” and that she’s “really afraid for the future of our planet” should former President Donald Trump return to the White House.
“To go backwards is not acceptable,” Jewell told attendees at the Bloomberg Green Festival in Seattle on Thursday. “I can’t say enough about the importance of continuing the progress that has been made over the last three years” on climate change, she added, especially the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Jewell, who led the Interior Department under former President Barack Obama, said a second Trump administration would pose more peril than his first did, when some of his attempted regulation changes met with roadblocks in the courts. This time around, there will be “more people in the judiciary that may look unfavorably on the kinds of laws that have given us clean air and clean water,” Jewell said, adding that she worried about climate progress “coming unraveled.”
Asked if President Joe Biden was the best person to beat Trump, Jewell said she didn’t know. Polls showing Biden trailing Trump — and not Biden’s age — are what have her most concerned. But the continuation of Biden’s policies is the most critical thing, she emphasized.
“If Biden or another Democrat is elected, and the kinds of people that are working in government that understand these issues are able to continue to do the work they do, we are fine. If the election is lost, we are not fine.”
@SecretaryJewell voices her fears for the planet if Trump is re-elected in a discussion with @climate’s @Zhirji28 at #BBGGreenFestival.Watch live broadcast: https://t.co/6eK1ruwJOC pic.twitter.com/wH3nqoU9Qq
Now the global board treasurer for The Nature Conservancy, and previously the president and chief executive officer of outdoors retailer Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), Jewell also spoke about the importance of government and business working together to meet environmental goals. Businesses hate chaos but don’t mind playing by consistent rules, she said.
Addressing climate change and sustainability as a business “is table stakes today,” she said, though companies face challenges to actually cutting their emissions and environmental impact. In her days leading REI, she recalled there was more of a competitive disadvantage to making sustainable choices. When REI installed solar panels at stores, for example, it initially did so only in states with tax incentives to limit the expense. Now, the low cost of panels has made that moot.
One of the biggest hurdles to getting to net zero is that consumers still aren’t paying for putting carbon in the atmosphere, Jewell said. Economic incentives are needed: “Until we start shining a spotlight on the true impact, I don’t think people are going to begin to change their behaviors.”
If decarbonization requires work by governments and businesses, it also depends on effective activism, Jewell noted. She called herself a “fan” of Greta Thunberg and even of the activists who repeatedly sued her during her time running Interior.
“We are all part of an ecosystem that needs to work together,” she said. “We need to pull all those levers now, because it’s a five-alarm fire.”
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