Utah Rep. John Curtis has long been a lone wolf among Republicans urging them to join the fight against climate change. Now he’s taking the message to British conservatives as well.
He joined a conservative member of Parliament, Alicia Kearns, in an op-ed Wednesday in The Times of London to argue that battling climate change is a key to the survival of conservatives in both countries.
“The truth is, on both sides of the Atlantic, many of our colleagues on the right have been absent from the climate debate because they have been unsure of the conservative solutions or have been deterred by a movement that too often couches its argument in anti-free market rhetoric,” they wrote.
The pair said it’s time to get beyond that, and to offer conservative solutions to climate change.
“The future prosperity and security of our countries, as well as the political success of our parties, require conservatives to lead in tackling the greatest environmental challenge of our time,” they wrote.
They said it is time to offer pragmatic solutions that empower individuals and businesses to innovate and invest in clean technologies that will cut emissions while supporting jobs and spurring economic growth.
“That requires recognition that private markets are uniquely positioned to deliver at the scale necessary to address climate change and that the principal role of government should be to create markets that incentivize individuals and companies to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases,” they wrote.
The pair said conservatives in both countries have helped lead out on the issue previously, and can do it again.
“It was Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan who spearheaded the Montreal protocol to cut chlorofluorocarbons to protect the ozone layer,” they wrote. “True conservatives value conservation and the environment, it is in our name after all.”
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