North Carolina GOP Candidates Embrace Climate Change

Several Republican candidates in North Carolina are embracing climate change, saying that humans are playing a role. Congressmen Ted Budd and George Holding made the comments during debates on Spectrum News.

This is largely something new for the GOP, says Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. “Historically, I think in the Republican Party, there’s been a greater resistance to acknowledging the phenomenon of climate change,” he said. “Climate change will continually get worse and more serious the less we address it. We always should be willing and interested in acting to mitigate it because it always has another degree of severity to come.”

At the very least, he said, hearing politicians say they believe humans are playing a role is a step forward.