Alice Hill On Texas Floods, Trump's Anti-Resilience Budget Bill, And 'Climate Realism'

For most climate-conscious folks, the world is a little more scary than it was back in 2015 when the Paris Agreement was signed.

Ok, maybe a lot more scary.

With a climate-denier in the White House, destructive wars raging in Europe and the Middle East, and the scaling back of emissions targets by rich countries, there's lots for climate policy wonks — not to mention the rest of us — to be nervous about.

Perhaps a change in strategy is needed. A different way to press home the importance of climate mitigation and adaptation that suits the febrile times. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) thinks it has just the ticket: the Climate Realism Initiative. With adaptation as a central pillar, the initiative promotes investing in national resilience, preparing for climate shocks at home and abroad, and navigating the geopolitical realities of climate change.

In this episode, Alice Hill, David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment at CFR and a veteran of the Obama White House, joins to discuss the new program — and some of the controversy it has generated in climate policy circles.

Alice also shares her snap analysis of President Trump's newly signed "big, beautiful bill," which guts clean energy tax incentives and climate resilience projects, and offers her reflections on the horrific flash floods in Texas, which have claimed over 100 lives.

She then digs into why the US needs a "Manhattan Project" for climate risk modeling and much, much more investment in adaptation innovation if it is to survive and thrive.

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📚Read Alice's essay 'The Adaptation Imperative' at Foreign Affairs

📚 Learn about the Climate Realism Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations