Beyond Carbon: What Is Michael Bloomberg’s New Initiative?

Beyond Carbon is the name for the campaign Michael Bloomberg has announced that he will be working on in lieu of a presidential run.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Bloomberg confirmed he would not be running for president in the 2020 election. He wrote, “While there would be no higher honor than serving as president, my highest obligation as a citizen is to help the country the best way I can, right now. That’s what I’ll do, including the launch of a new effort called Beyond Carbon.”

Here’s what you need to know about Bloomberg’s new initiative, Beyond Carbon.

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Beyond Carbon Is the Next Initiative After Bloomberg’s 2011 Initiative, Beyond Coal

Bloomberg’s explanation for the heart of the grassroots effort, as first published in an op-ed on Bloomberg, reads,

“I will launch a new, even more ambitious phase of the campaign — Beyond Carbon: a grassroots effort to begin moving America as quickly as possible away from oil and gas and toward a 100 percent clean energy economy.

At the heart of Beyond Carbon is the conviction that, as the science has made clear, every year matters. The idea of a Green New Deal — first suggested by the columnist Tom Friedman more than a decade ago — stands no chance of passage in the Senate over the next two years. But Mother Nature does not wait on our political calendar, and neither can we.”

Bloomberg explained that this new initiative is a natural next step from his 2011 initiative, Beyond Coal, which he has also pledged to continue, with a core mission of “retiring” every coal-fired plan in the country within the next 11 years.

Bloomberg has not provided explicit details as to how he plans to execute his new initiative, beyond moving America to a “100 percent clean energy economy” as quickly as possible.

Bloomberg then went on to cite many of the major problems in the country, all of which have been, in his opinion, more effectively combatted with grassroots efforts than with any legislative effort from D.C.

Bloomberg wrote,

“Congress has not passed a major gun safety bill in nearly 25 years. Last week the Democratic House voted to approve a bill strengthening the background check system, but the Republican Senate is virtually guaranteed to block it. Nevertheless, thanks to strong grassroots efforts that we have spent years organizing and mobilizing, 20 states have passed stronger background check bills or adopted other laws that help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. But 20 states is not enough, and we can’t stop now given the risks to our country.

Gun violence and climate change are not the only urgent challenges where we must make progress even as Washington continues to ignore proven solutions.”