What losing Build Back Better means for climate change
Climate scientists warn that emissions need to fall quickly. Those cuts will be even tougher with the Build Back Better legislation shelved for the foreseeable future.
With billions of dollars for clean energy, the Build Back Better legislation has the potential to substantially and rapidly cut heat-trapping emissions in the U.S. But Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., rejected the bill on Sunday, and that means Build Back Better is effectively dead at a time when scientists say the world can't afford to wait on climate change.
"It's really disheartening," says Leah Stokes, associate professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "We
