--- title: College Republicans Reject Donald Trump on Climate Change description: A group of more than 20 college Republican groups issued a call to action on climate change Wednesday canonical: https://time.com/5176700/climate-change-college-republicans-donald-trump/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-28T12:00:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T21:40:20.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why College Republicans Think the GOP Should Act on Climate Change og:description: "If climate change is posing a threat to humanity it’s something that needs to be addressed." og:url: https://time.com/5176700/climate-change-college-republicans-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf2a4e1e96e387ef/6988e45922fb85fafbe23868/gettyimages-498084386.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3245 og:image:height: 1825 og:image:alt: US Climate Change Talk og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why College Republicans Think the GOP Should Act on Climate Change twitter:description: "If climate change is posing a threat to humanity it’s something that needs to be addressed." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf2a4e1e96e387ef/6988e45922fb85fafbe23868/gettyimages-498084386.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why College Republicans Think the GOP Should Act on Climate Change > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a2812867-68b3-4b76-b41d-1d0c47b6cec0&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Legal Reasons Why President Trump Won't Take A Stand On Climate Change [Watch (HLS stream): The Legal Reasons Why President Trump Won't Take A Stand On Climate Change](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mia6Tcb8.m3u8) (2:11)  _Published 2017-09-26. The Legal Reasons Why President Trump Won't Take A Stand On Climate Change_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 12, 2023 9:40 PM UTCPublished: Feb 28, 2018 12:00 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 12, 2023 9:40 PM UTCPublished: Feb 28, 2018 12:00 PM UTC A group of more than 20 college Republican groups issued a call to action on climate change Wednesday with the endorsement of a proposal for a federally imposed carbon tax. The announcement from the newly-announced Students for Carbon Dividends group is the latest signal of a fissure between an older generation of elected Republicans who view climate change policies with skepticism and young conservatives who accept global warming science and want to see a conservative solution to the problem. “People are really looking past the politics,” says Alexander Posner, president of the coalition and a Yale College student. “They’re interested in having a conversation about solutions.” Student leaders behind the alliance, which includes college Republican groups from a diverse array of schools stretching from the heartland to New England, will promote a [proposal](http://time.com/4663995/republicans-gop-climate-change-council/) for the federal government to tax carbon dioxide emissions from industry and return the revenue to taxpayers as a dividend. The plan also calls for a repeal of Obama-era climate change regulations. The specific tax and dividend structure endorsed by the young Republicans was first proposed last year by a group of Republican party elder statesmen including former secretaries of State George Shultz and James Baker as well conservative economists including N. Gregory Mankiw and Martin Feldstein, both Harvard University professors. The group, called the Climate Leadership Council, suggests taxing carbon dioxide emissions at $40 a ton and says the average American family of four would get $2,000 in annual dividends under the plan. The new coalition hopes that the proposal — both serious and rooted in free market principles — will help win over disenchanted young Republicans. [Polling](http://www.people-press.org/2017/05/17/partisan-identification-is-sticky-but-about-10-switched-parties-over-the-past-year/) from the Pew Research Center showed nearly a quarter of people under 30 who identified as Republican in 2015 switching to the Democratic Party by 2017\. Young people, including young conservatives, overwhelmingly support measures to combat climate change. A [survey](http://yc4er.org/ycer-poll-young-conservatives-views-on-energy-the-environment/) commissioned during the Obama Administration by Young Conservatives for Energy Reform found that 74% of young conservative voters support measures that address global warming, provided they don’t harm the economy. And a [poll released this week](https://www.axios.com/poll-millennials-care-about-climate-change-1519649123-0c3a4634-dd7b-4e12-a1a2-19fca93aa3b7.html) found just over half of young Republicans are concerned about climate change. “College Republicans say they’re struggling to recruit on campus, often because of the climate issue,” says Posner. “Strategically there’s a real interest and value in conservatives taking an active stance on this issue.” But while the new coalition includes six college Democratic clubs, its founders are clear that their group supports different solutions from many of the climate change activists on college campuses today — think largely of the push for universities to divest from fossil fuels. Instead, they are offering solutions they say even the most ardent free-market conservatives should be able to support. Economists have hailed a carbon tax as the most efficient mechanism to address climate change. And conservative thinkers endorse the idea of using the revenue gained by taxing polluters to fund a tax cut for a large cross section of the economy. **“**We are the party of solutions,” says Dylan Jones, chairman of the University of Kansas College Republicans. “We need to be champions of the pro-life movement in every single way. If climate change is posing a threat to humanity it’s something that needs to be addressed.” Shultz, Baker and others first proposed the tax plan last year in the early days of the Trump Administration, hopeful that the president might soften his tone on the issue when presented a viable conservative plan to address it. But chances of implementing a carbon tax — dim to begin with — have faded as president Trump has continued to deride climate change, undoing regulations that target it and [preparing to remove](http://time.com/4801134/paris-agreement-withdrawal-donald-trump-rose-garden/) the U.S. from the [Paris climate deal](http://time.com/4801134/paris-agreement-withdrawal-donald-trump-rose-garden/), a global pact aimed at addressing the issue. Shultz, who served as Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State and Richard Nixon’s Treasury Secretary, tells TIME that the swelling support from young conservatives will act as a “shot in the arm” for conservative efforts to address climate change. “All the major actions in the conservation area have taken under the leadership of Republican presidents,” says Shultz, referring to the creation of the national park system and the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency, among other things. “There are a few people who have fallen off the bandwagon, but we’ll get back to our tradition. And the college Republicans show how that’s going to happen.” **Correction**: The original version of this story incorrectly identified Alexander Posner. He is president of the Students for Carbon Dividends, he is not president of the Yale College Republicans. ## Transcript As a candidate Donald Trump had no problem giving his opinion about climate change. So Obama's talking about all of this with the global warming, and a lot of it's a hoax, it's a hoax, I mean it's a money making industry okay . >> But as president he won't say what he things and neither will his administration. The president himself during the campaign called climate change a hoax. Have you had that conversation with him? I have not had that conversation with him. He no longer believes what he tweeted during the course of the campaign in years earlier, that it's a hoax? Look, you're gonna have to ask him. I'll ask it one more time. Does he believe global warming's a hoax? Does he believe- You should ask him that. When asked their own opinions, other members of the Trump administration generally agree the climate is changing and humans may play a role. Climate is changing, it always has. Man at this particular point in time is having an effect on it, how much effect is what's at debate here. So why is Trump himself so cagey? Part of it is political, polls show the majority of Americans believe global warming is real and is caused by human activities. Part of it personal, Trump does not like to admit he was wrong about an issue in the past As can be seen from his brief and begrudging admission this his crusade over President Obama's birth certificate was mistaken. President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. But there's a legal reason too. The Environmental Protection Agency has found that the greenhouse gases, which cause climate change Are a form of pollution that endanger human health and wellbeing. And thanks to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, that means the EPA must act on those findings. If the Trump Administration were to say climate change isn't real it would be open to lawsuits from environmentalists for not acting on its own EPA findings. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is careful to say that it's real in some form. I indicated That in fact global warming is occurring. That human activity contributes to it in some manner. That doesn't mean the EPA has to keep the Obama administration's plans in place. In fact members of the Trump adminstration have been steadily rolling back regulations designed to fight climate change. They just can't say they're doing that. Because climate change isn't real. 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