{"id":411677,"date":"2026-01-15T20:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T20:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/411677\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T20:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T20:37:07","slug":"climate-insiders-want-to-stop-talking-about-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/411677\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Insiders Want to Stop Talking About \u2018Climate Change\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where does the fight to decarbonize the global economy go from here? The past 12 months, after all, have been bleak. Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement<\/a> (again) and is trying to leave<\/a> a precursor United Nations climate treaty, as well. He ripped out half the Inflation Reduction Act, sidetracked the Environmental Protection Administration, and rechristened the Energy Department\u2019s in-house bank in the name of \u201cenergy dominance<\/a>.\u201d Even nonpartisan weather research \u2014 like that conducted by the National Center for Atmospheric Research \u2014 is getting shut down by Trump\u2019s ideologues. And in the days before we went to press, Trump invaded Venezuela with the explicit goal (he claims) of taking its oil<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Abroad, the picture hardly seems rosier. China\u2019s new climate pledge struck many observers as underwhelming<\/a>. Mark Carney, who once led the effort to decarbonize global finance, won Canada\u2019s premiership after promising to lift parts of that country\u2019s carbon tax \u2014 then struck a \u201cgrand bargain\u201d with fossiliferous Alberta. Even Europe seems to dither between its climate goals, its economic security, and the need for faster growth.<\/p>\n

Now would be a good time, we thought, for an industry-wide check-in. So we called up 55 of the most discerning and often disputatious voices in climate and clean energy \u2014 the scientists, researchers, innovators, and reformers who are already shaping our climate future. Some of them led the Biden administration\u2019s climate policy from within the White House; others are harsh or heterodox critics of mainstream environmentalism. And a few more are on the front lines right now, tasked with responding to Trump\u2019s policies from the halls of Congress \u2014 or the ivory minarets of academia.<\/p>\n

We asked them all the same questions, including: Which key decarbonization technology is not ready<\/a> for primetime? Who in the Trump administration has been the worst<\/a> for decarbonization? And how hot is the planet set to get in 2100<\/a>, really? (Among other queries.) Their answers \u2014 as summarized and tabulated by my colleagues \u2014 are available in these pages.<\/p>\n

You can see whether insiders think data centers<\/a> are slowing down decarbonization and what folks have learned (or, at least, say they\u2019ve learned) from the repeal of clean energy tax credits<\/a> in the Inflation Reduction Act.<\/p>\n

But from many different respondents, a mood emerged: a kind of exhaustion with \u201cclimate\u201d as the right frame through which to understand the fractious mixture of electrification, pollution reduction, clean energy development, and other goals that people who care about climate change actually pursue. When we asked what piece of climate jargon people would most like to ban, we expected most answers to dwell on the various colors of hydrogen (green<\/a>, blue<\/a>, orange<\/a>, chartreuse), perhaps, or the alphabet soup of acronyms around carbon removal (CDR, DAC, CCS, CCUS, MRV). Instead, we got:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Climate.\u2019 Literally the word climate, I would just get rid of it completely,\u201d one venture capitalist told us. \u201cI would love to see people not use ‘climate change’ as a predominant way to talk to people about a global challenge like this,\u201d seconded a former Washington official. \u201cAnd who knows what a \u2018greenhouse gas emission\u2019 is in the real world?\u201d A lobbyist agreed: \u201cClimate change, unfortunately, has become too politicized \u2026 I\u2019d rather talk about decarbonization than climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everyone was as willing to shift to decarbonization, but most welcomed some form of specificity. \u201cI\u2019ve always tried to reframe climate change to be more personal and to recognize it is literally the biggest health challenge of our lives,\u201d the former official said. The VC said we should \u201cget back to the basics of, are you in the energy business? Are you in the agriculture business? Are you in transportation, logistics, manufacturing?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re in a business,\u201d they added, \u201cthere is no climate business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everyone hated \u201cclimate\u201d quite as much \u2014 but others mentioned a phrase including the word. One think tanker wanted to nix \u201cclimate emergency.\u201d Another scholar said: \u201cI think the \u2018climate justice\u2019 term \u2014 not the idea \u2014 but I think the term got spread so widely that it became kind of difficult to understand what it was even referring to.\u201d And one climate scientist didn\u2019t have a problem with climate change, per se, but did say that people should pare back how they discuss it and back off \u201cthe notion that climate change will result in human extinction, or the sudden and imminent end to human civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were other points of agreement. Four people wanted to ban \u201cnet zero\u201d or \u201ccarbon neutrality.\u201d One scientist said activists should back off fossil gas \u2014 \u201cI know we\u2019re always trying to try convince people of something, but, like, the entire world calls it \u2019natural gas\u2019\u201d \u2014 and another scientist said that they wished people would stop \u201cmicromanaging\u201d language: \u201cPeople continually changing jargon to try and find the magic words that make something different than it is \u2014 that annoys me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two more academics added they wish to banish discussion of \u201covershoot\u201d: \u201cIt\u2019s not clear if it’s referring to temperatures or emissions \u2014 I just don’t think it’s a helpful frame for thinking about the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnit economics,\u201d \u201cgreenwashing,\u201d and \u2014 yes \u2014 the whole spectrum of hydrogen colors came in for a lashing. But perhaps the most distinctive ban suggestion came from Todd Stern, the former chief U.S. climate diplomat, who negotiated the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate it when people say \u2019are you going to COP?\u2019\u201d he told me, referring to the United Nations\u2019 annual climate summit, officially known as the Conference of the Parties. His issue wasn\u2019t calling it \u201cCOP,\u201d he clarified. It was dropping the definite article.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I see it, no one has the right to suddenly become such intimate pals with \u2018COP.\u2019 You go to the ball game or the conference or what have you. And you go to \u2018the COP,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI am clearly losing this battle, but no one will ever hear me drop the \u2018the.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, since I talked to Stern, the United States has moved to drop the COP entirely \u2014 with or without the \u201cthe\u201d \u2014 because Trump took us out<\/a> of the climate treaty under whose aegis the COP is held. But precision still counts, even in unfriendly times. And throughout the rest of this package, you\u2019ll find insiders trying to find a path forward in thoughtful, insightful, and precise ways.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll also find them remaining surprisingly upbeat \u2014 and even more optimistic, in some ways, than they were last year. Twelve months ago, 30% of our insider panel thought China would peak its emissions in the 2020s; this year, a plurality said the peak would come this decade. Roughly the same share of respondents this year as last year thought the U.S. would hit<\/a> net zero in the 2060s. Trump might be setting back American climate action in the near term. But some of the most important long-term trends remain unchanged.<\/p>\n

OUR PANEL INCLUDED\u2026 Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies | Ken Caldeira, senior scientist emeritus at the Carnegie Institution for Science and visiting scholar at Stanford University | Kate Marvel, research physicist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies | Holly Jean Buck, associate professor of environment and sustainability at the University at Buffalo | Kim Cobb, climate scientist and director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society | Jennifer Wilcox, chemical engineering professor at the University of Pennsylvania and former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy and Carbon Management | Michael Greenstone, economist and director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago | Solomon Hsiang, professor of global environmental policy at Stanford University | Chris Bataille, global fellow at Columbia University\u2019s Center on Global Energy Policy | Danny Cullenward, senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania | J. Mijin Cha, environmental studies professor at UC Santa Cruz and fellow at Cornell University\u2019s Climate Jobs Institute | Lynne Kiesling, director of the Institute for Regulatory Law and Economics at Northwestern University | Daniel Swain, climate scientist at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources | Emily Grubert, sustainable energy policy professor at the University of Notre Dame | Jon Norman, president of Hydrostor | Chris Creed, managing partner at Galvanize Climate Solutions | Amy Heart, senior vice president of public policy at Sunrun | Kate Brandt, chief sustainability officer at Google | Sophie Purdom, managing partner at Planeteer Capital and co-founder of CTVC | Lara Pierpoint, managing director at Trellis Climate | Andrew Beebe, managing director at Obvious Ventures | Gabriel Kra, managing director and co-founder of Prelude Ventures | Joe Goodman, managing partner and co-founder of VoLo Earth Ventures | Erika Reinhardt, executive director and co-founder of Spark Climate Solutions | Dawn Lippert, founder and CEO of Elemental Impact and general partner at Earthshot Ventures | Rajesh Swaminathan, partner at Khosla Ventures | Rob Davies, CEO of Sublime Systems | John Arnold, philanthropist and co-founder of Arnold Ventures | Gabe Kleinman, operating partner at Emerson Collective | Amy Duffuor, co-founder and general partner at Azolla Ventures | Amy Francetic, managing general partner and founder of Buoyant Ventures | Tom Chi, founding partner at At One Ventures | Francis O\u2019Sullivan, managing director at S2G Investments | Cooper Rinzler, partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures | Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | Neil Chatterjee, former commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission | Representative Scott Peters, member of the U.S. House of Representatives | Todd Stern, former U.S. special envoy for climate change | Representative Sean Casten, member of the U.S. House of Representatives | Representative Mike Levin, member of the U.S. House of Representatives | Zeke Hausfather, climate research lead at Stripe and research scientist at Berkeley Earth | Shuchi Talati, founder and executive director of the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering | Nat Bullard, co-founder of Halcyon | Bill McKibben, environmentalist and founder of 350.org<\/a> | Ilaria Mazzocco, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies | Leah Stokes, professor of environmental politics at UC Santa Barbara | Noah Kaufman, senior research scholar at Columbia University\u2019s Center on Global Energy Policy | Arvind Ravikumar, energy systems professor at the University of Texas at Austin | Jessica Green, political scientist at the University of Toronto | Jonas Nahm, energy policy professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS | Armond Cohen, executive director of the Clean Air Task Force | Costa Samaras, director of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University | John Larsen, partner at Rhodium Group | Alex Trembath, executive director of the Breakthrough Institute | Alex Flint, executive director of the Alliance for Market Solutions<\/p>\n

The Heatmap Insiders Survey<\/a> of 55 invited expert respondents was conducted by Heatmap News reporters during November and December 2025. Responses were collected via phone interviews. All participants were given the opportunity to record responses anonymously. Not all respondents answered all questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Where does the fight to decarbonize the global economy go from here? The past 12 months, after all,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,2668,66,173139],"class_list":{"0":"post-411677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-homepage","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-the-insiders-survey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}