Solutions for workers impacted by climate change intiatives

In an interview with Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman, Katharine Hayhoe, The Nature Conservancy Chief Scientist, and Christian Braneon, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies Columbia University Climate School, discuss what will happen to oil workers and miners as the industry shifts to renewable energy.

Video transcript

RICK NEWMAN: Christian, you have worked in the government before. What do you think are, let's just say, one or two of the most important things we need to see out of forthcoming legislation from Congress?

CHRISTIAN BRANEON: Well, you know, we need to make sure that folks that currently work in the fossil fuel industry, their jobs are protected so that they can continue and retire and not have fear that they're going to lose their jobs. There may not be a whole lot of new jobs in the fossil fuel industry. We need to shift to renewable energy and clean energy. But I think we have to give folks, you know, some solace and make them not be overly concerned that they're going to lose their jobs.

Also, as we create new jobs that are tied to infrastructure, renewable energy, and other technologies around adapting to climate change, we've got to prioritize marginalized and vulnerable communities. We've got to tie training for those jobs to communities that are adversely affected by climate change. Those jobs should actually benefit those communities in terms of resilience to climate change, as well as actual jobs and actual employment. So I think that's a really critical element I would say that we need to include.

RICK NEWMAN: Katharine Hayhoe, you are based in Texas. So you are a climate activist in a red state with a lot of carbon energy. Is that plausible, what Christian just said, to you? Do you think that would be a good sell to people in the carbon industries that we're going to find a way to protect your livelihood, no matter how this goes?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: Well, I don't think we can find a way to protect the livelihood of the largest oil and gas companies in the world that have made their record fortunes off these fossil fuels. They're going to have to transition to new sources of energy.

RICK NEWMAN: But what about their workers?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: Their workers absolutely deserve a just transition. In some cases, they are already being refigured, and there are some companies that are actually doing this, to transition their workers' skills in mining, geologic exploration, to look at things like the rare Earth minerals that you need for batteries. So some companies are already starting to transition to look at biofuels, to look at storage, to look at other issues like that.

We also need to provide jobs in places like, say, West Virginia, coal mining areas where people are part of an industry that has already been going downhill for 30 years. Not because of climate action, just because it's a very old, dirty, and not very cheap way to get energy anymore. But bringing in a manufacturing plant and saying, hey, there's retraining programs, that can be part of it, too. A just transition is really important, but we need that transition because we will all pay the price if we don't.