Climate Advocates Are Gambling With Fate

Over the past few years, climate advocates have gained two atypical allies. For the cosmopolitan progressives who normally dominate environmental policy making, these two new groups are somewhat embarrassing to rub shoulders with, which is why discussion of the two shifts has been rejected or muted. But they signal that a new era has begun in climate politics—one that advocates have long wished for, but also one that they may now rue.

The first group of allies can be found in corporate America, especially in the tech and finance sectors. Big companies began advertising their climate bona fides under the Obama administration, when major tech firms , at least in the United States. Those initial attempts, which could fairly be described as “greenwashing,” have since become much more interesting: Google has pioneered , and Microsoft has become one of the world’s largest funders of atmospheric carbon removal.