Table of Contents
Section 5: U.S. Landscape of Center-Right Organizations and Funders
Key Takeaways
- A useful way to understand conservative reform efforts is to analyze their approaches to mobilization. The Associations approach attempts to mobilize around a previously existing identity. The Libertarian approach focuses on appealing to limited government leanings of individuals on the right to advocate for reform. And arguably the strongest of the three approaches, the Innovation approach, focuses on investing in new science and technologies to address climate challenges.
- Key structural barriers in the sector include the intensely partisan atmosphere, a lack of strong organizations, and a dearth of strategic funders. Organizations such as ClearPath, which focus on the Innovation approach, are the strongest investments, while organizations organizing around the Associations approach are the weakest investments.
The conservative climate landscape features several prominent challenges. Advocates frequently find themselves in a defensive position to prevent movement backward, rather than proactively affecting policy. The universe of people willing to finance reform efforts is also relatively small. This lack of funding neuters the growth of talent and experience in the sector, especially as it contends with established interests. Whether approaching the sector as a funder or activist, a number of inherent challenges spring up:
- There is very little spirit of comity or collaboration around environment as a bipartisan issue.
- While there is an existing community of funders in the sector, most of the energy is on the left. Conservative funders are few and far between for this issue, and they do not collaborate by habit.
- There is little opportunity to scale existing efforts in the conservative environmental space.
- And, without question, this ranks among the riskiest of investments in political reform. Financing for reform on the left inspires an equally vigorous response by opponents on the right. Further, the ingrained lack of trust between the right and the left reduces the ability of reformers and funders to find each other in this work.
In short, it’s tough to win in this area even under the best of circumstances. It’s made tougher by the fact that the soil on which we might consider building a reform movement is hard and getting harder under the Trump administration.
How Conservative Environmental Organizations View Each Other
Much of our effort analyzing the sector was spent understanding how organizations within the conservative environmental movement view one another. The framework we have found most useful in breaking down the sector is one provided to us by one of the leaders in the field. Many of these organizations are small and relatively weak; they struggle to rise in a sector with little bipartisan spirit and a lack of steady financing. Based on this framework, organizations that focus on center-right climate change reform fall into one of three categories:
- Associations Approach: These are organizations that subscribe to a simple technique for spurring movement on climate change: They work to identify broad groups who are typically conservative and mobilize these individuals in a way that opens up space for policy opportunities. For example, they might focus on organizing veterans or Catholics around a piece of climate legislation. The Associations approach sees a common identity as an easy way to organize. For organizations and funders on the left focused on climate change, this has been a logical starting point in attempts to spur conservative momentum. However, this approach has inherent weaknesses. As we say in the polling review, climate change is generally not a priority issue for any of these Association groups. Similarly, this approach falters because these groups will often have an array of issues for which they advocate, preventing the level of focus necessary to build a sustained and powerful constituency.
- Libertarian Approach: Groups that fall under this category focus on appealing to the limited government leanings of individuals on the right to advocate for reform. For example, many of these organizations support market-based reforms that limit government regulation, such as carbon pricing. One challenge these organizations face, however, is the view that many are largely financed by major corporations in an attempt to advance their own agendas with little benefit to the American consumer.
- Innovation Approach: Arguably the strongest of the three approaches, the innovation approach focuses on investing in new science and technologies to address our climate challenges. These groups see themselves as removing ideology from the equation, looking solely at the inherent market opportunity in investing in new technologies and clean energy. Many of these advocates are investors who got into the space because of the attractive investment opportunities it offered. Many advocate for wider use of nuclear power as clean energy, in addition to electric vehicles and the development of a grid, to support them. They take an entrepreneurial view towards climate change, understanding that innovation and new technology can help address this problem like any other business product or service.
Conservative Environmental Reform Organizations
| ORGANIZATION | MISSIONS AND CLASSIFICATIONS | APPROACH |
|---|---|---|
| ClearPath | Energy drives everything that we do, and for the longest time, the left has owned that debate. It’s time for us to take that back. It’s time for a conservative, clean energy agenda. At ClearPath we believe in America’s entrepreneurial spirit. One that builds new technologies, not just for America, but for the whole world. We need a real debate that leads to real solutions. We need fewer top-down government policies and more focus on working with free markets rather than against them. | Innovations |
| Climate Leadership Council | The Climate Leadership Council is an international policy institute founded in collaboration with a who’s who of business, opinion, and environmental leaders to promote a carbon dividends framework as the most cost-effective, equitable, and politically viable climate solution. | Libertarian |
| DEPLOY/US | DEPLOY/US is a strictly non-partisan organization dedicated to national action on climate and clean energy. | Associations |
| Future 500 | To engage and align diverse stakeholders in support of systemic solutions to urgent global problems. Future 500 fosters the capacity for corporations and NGOs to engage one another in unique and meaningful ways. | Associations |
| R Street | The R Street Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy research organization (“think tank”). Our mission is to engage in policy research and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government. | Libertarian |
| Center for Climate and Security | The Center for Climate and Security (CCS) is a non-partisan institute of the Council on Strategic Risks with a team and distinguished Advisory Board of security and military experts. CCS envisions a climate- resilient world which recognizes that climate threats to security are significant and unprecedented,and acts to address those threats in a manner that is commensurate to their scale, consequence, and probability. | Associations Libertarian |
| RepublicEN | We are over 7,000 Americans educating the country about free-enterprise solutions to climate change. Members of RepublicEN are conservatives, libertarians, and pragmatists of diverse political opinion. We stand together because we believe in American free enterprise. We believe that with a true level playing field, free enterprise can deliver the innovation to solve climate change. But America’s climate policy needs to change. Change requires that conservative leaders step up and lead. | Associations |
| Catholic Climate Covenant | Catholic Climate Covenant inspires and equips people and institutions to care for creation and care for the poor. Through our 16 national partners, we guide the U.S. Church’s response to climate change by educating, giving public witness, and offering resources. | Associations |
| ConvervAmerica | ConservAmerica began as a partisan effort in 1995 – today, we are a non-partisan national organization that creates new solutions to environmental issues that have become gridlocked by partisanship. Our mission is to educate the public and elected officials on constructive approaches to today’s environ- mental, energy, and conservation challenges. | Libertarian |
| Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship | To safeguard the air, water, land, wildlife, and natural systems that sustain and enhance life on earth by promoting responsible stewardship and conservation, empowering fellow conservatives, and advancing the original conservative philosophy that compels us to be good stewards of our natural heritage. | Libertarian |
| Free the People | Free the People’s goal is to get ahead of politics and engage in the cultural exchange that will set the political agenda for the next 50 years. We want to set the conversation, instead of settling for rhetorical scraps tossed to us by the political class. We want to make the community for liberty a cool thing. Using cutting-edge technology and storytelling, we’re building a grassroots constituency that can translate good ideas into education, conversation, and social activism. This community influences culture and public opinion and drives boots-on-the-ground social change from the bottom up. | Associations |
| Young Conservatives for Energy Reform | Our mission is to: represent the young conservatives’ point-of-view on energy reform before local councils, state legislatures, and Congress; speak out in the public arena and in the media on behalf of energy reform; train young conservatives to be effective leaders for energy reform action; educate young conservative voters about energy issues and legislators; and build an energy platform that speaks to the values of independence, security, prosperity, family, and stewardship. | Associations |
Funders in the Sector
There are only two significant Republican funders in the sector: Jay Faison and Trammell Crow. This community is not growing, which has led to a significant and steady deficit in funding. Given this macro-funding environment, there is little hope that there will be a change in the funder community.
As we can see above, there are certainly organizations who have the potential to have impact on this issue. However, the fundamental distrust that exists in our current political environment will hinder any progress on the issue. Funders and activists on the right, despite their good intentions, will have deep concerns about receiving funding from, or collaborating with, organizations on the left. Intense media identification of climate and energy policy with the left’s “Green New Deal” is likely to make this challenge bigger.
Similarly, some organizations on the left are moving away from collaborating across party lines, as many see working with the right as betraying core values. Reformers are faced with two unattractive options: reaching across the aisle only to be categorized as a know-nothing sell out, or remaining pure to conservative roots but lacking the resources to make change.
The inherent challenges in bipartisan solutions in today’s political climate lend more weight to the Innovation approach. Investing in innovation and research is relatively unpoliticized, allowing more room for policymakers to agree.