--- title: Tim Walz's Other Skill: Climate Communications description: Minnesota's governor has successfully implemented a range of climate policies—and knows how to talk canonical: https://time.com/7006717/tim-walz-kamala-harris-vp-climate-change/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-08-02T11:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T18:04:11.518Z article:section: Politics og:title: Tim Walz's Other Skill: Climate Communications og:description: Minnesota's governor has successfully implemented a range of climate policies—and knows how to talk og:url: https://time.com/7006717/tim-walz-kamala-harris-vp-climate-change/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b695690b6647fad/698a5985b21a9c497c50a4ec/tim-walz-climate-change.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Key Speakers At The Aspen Ideas: Climate Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Tim Walz's Other Skill: Climate Communications twitter:description: Minnesota's governor has successfully implemented a range of climate policies—and knows how to talk twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b695690b6647fad/698a5985b21a9c497c50a4ec/tim-walz-climate-change.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Tim Walz Knows How to Talk About Climate Change > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 2, 2024 11:00 AM UTC  Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, speaks during the Aspen Ideas: Climate conference in Miami Beach in 2023. Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, speaks during the Aspen Ideas: Climate conference in Miami Beach in 2023.Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 2, 2024 11:00 AM UTC Minnesota Governor Tim Walz catapulted onto the national scene as a potential running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris at least in part due to his artful rhetoric—including his deployment of the word “weird.” In one cable news hit after another, he’s used the word describe Republicans, inspiring other Harris surrogates to do the same and earning him praise as a plain-spoken Democratic communicator. Whatever the outcome of the competition to be Harris’ number two, however, Walz will continue being influential in one particular area, thanks to his rhetorical skills: in recent years, he has become one of the country's most skillful climate communicators, even as he has remained relatively unknown to the average American. I got a first-hand view of Walz’s abilities in 2023 when I moderated a [discussion](https://www.aspenideas.org/sessions/made-in-america-a-new-era-of-clean-technology-competitiveness) with him on the opportunities and challenges in the coming climate-shaped economy. It’s a common topic that crops up from time to time at climate events, but Walz’s answers stood out. He described climate policy as a political economy problem as much as he did a strictly scientific or economic one. To address the issue, supporters of climate measures need to figure out how to get people on board. “Until we get the social scientists in… there's a psychology that sometimes outweighs all of the basics of what the markets are telling you,” he said at Aspen Ideas Climate in Miami last year. “If people think something, that perceived reality is reality—and right now we’re not doing a good enough job.” Translation: it’s not enough that climate policies are good for society. Politicians need to do better explaining it and proving it. How has that worked for Walz in practice? In a way, Walz’s messaging solution sounds a bit like President Biden’s with a lot of talk about jobs. “The surest way to get people to buy in is to create a job that pays well in their community,” he told me. That messaging needs to better tailored his language to meet voters where they are. “All of us are going to have to be better about our smart politics, about bringing people in,” he said. Walz pointed to his approach to explaining his 2009 vote for cap-and-trade to constituents in his largelyrural district when he represented Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives. He said he didn’t talk about carbon reduction instead he told voters that “we’ve got all of this carbon sink and all of this farmland that we can get rich on cap and trade.” The measure, which was highly controversial, contributed to the ousting of many of his colleagues in a Republican wave. He held onto his seat with room to spare. There’s a good case that his messaging approach is working across Minnesota now that he is Governor: Walz has delivered big climate wins despite a closely divided legislature. During his tenure, the state passed a law requiring Minnesota utilities to generate 100% of their electricity from carbon-free sources by 2040, prioritized public transit and e-bikes in its $1.3 billion transport program, and created a $2 billion climate spending program that resembles the Inflation Reduction Act with incentives for everything from rooftop solar to electric school buses. In Miami, the conversation at times highlighted the barriers to decarbonization—from slow permitting to subsidized fossil fuels. Walz acknowledged these challenges, but was quick to move on. “I'm going to tell you what my pro tip of the day is: if you want to run for governor don't propose a gas tax and don't build a powerline,” he said. “Both of those things are incredibly personal to people and they're counterintuitive, even though you need to get them.” It is telling that as governor, Walz eventually got them both—and continues to enjoy a favorable approval rating. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7006717/tim-walz-kamala-harris-vp-climate-change/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7006717/tim-walz-kamala-harris-vp-climate-change/"},"headline":"Tim Walz Knows How to Talk About Climate Change","datePublished":"2024-08-02T11:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T18:04:11.518Z","description":"Minnesota's governor has successfully implemented a range of climate policies—and knows how to talk","url":"https://time.com/7006717/tim-walz-kamala-harris-vp-climate-change/","keywords":["climate change"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b695690b6647fad/698a5985b21a9c497c50a4ec/tim-walz-climate-change.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b695690b6647fad/698a5985b21a9c497c50a4ec/tim-walz-climate-change.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Key Speakers At The Aspen Ideas: Climate Conference","caption":"Tim Walz speaks at Aspen Ideas Climate","creditText":"Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate-change/","name":"climate change"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7006717/tim-walz-kamala-harris-vp-climate-change/","name":"Tim Walz Knows How to Talk About Climate Change"}}]}] ```