In the NewsCNNJanuary 29, 2019

The great irony of climate change politics is red states face more pain

Climate change will impose the greatest economic losses on Republican-leaning areas of the country that are almost uniformly resisting new efforts to combat it, according to a sweeping new study released Tuesday. In the study, researchers at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program found that states, counties and congressional districts that voted Republican in 2016 and 2018 will suffer greater economic and environmental damages from a changing climate over the coming decades than places that voted Democratic in the past two elections. As a share of income, rural areas that now break predominantly for the GOP will likewise suffer greater losses than the metropolitan centers that have become the backbone of the Democratic coalition. The Brookings study tracked these dynamics by using a county-level model of the impact of climate change developed by the Lab.