Our Story

The Climate Leadership Council’s mission is to promote effective, fair, and lasting climate solutions based on the carbon dividends plan.

By acting with a sensible plan, we can use the power of American ingenuity to address the climate problem today, instead of pushing it onto future generations.

In 2017, Secretaries of State James A. Baker and George P. Shultz along with our Founder, Ted Halstead, and other prominent Republicans published The Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends.

The distinguished co-authors of the Carbon Dividends Plan recognized that a successful climate policy must help families and create better opportunities for American workers. They also knew that to be a durable solution, it must ultimately earn the support of both Republicans and Democrats.

Soon after, a coalition of major companies, top environmental organizations, and opinion leaders from both the right and the left announced in a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal that they were joining forces to develop and promote the plan.

This Founding Member coalition continued to add more prominent organizations and opinion leaders. Meanwhile, thousands of economists, including 28 Nobel laureates, endorsed the approach in the Economists’ Statement on Carbon Dividends.

The work of the Founding Members culminated in the Council’s publication of its Bipartisan Climate Roadmap in February, 2020, capping a lengthy collaborative process to refine the details of their four-pillar plan. The Roadmap was endorsed by major editorial boards and lays the groundwork for carbon dividends legislation.

The Climate Leadership Council is committed to continuing this momentum, welcoming new allies to the cause, and achieving a lasting climate breakthrough where all sides win.