Innovation & Technology

In 2025, Let’s Unleash 3,143 Climate Opportunities Across the US

It is time for visionary state and city leaders across the US to pick up the baton from federal institutions — launching bold initiatives to fight climate change and creating green jobs at the local level.

Brand Provided | By Navi Radjou | Published 1 month ago | About a 9 minute read

Image: Wirestock

Roads to Removal — a recent report co-authored by scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a dozen other institutions — features a detailed map that highlights specific opportunities for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in all 3,143 counties across the US.

The map highlights, for each county, the CDR method — either forests, soils, biomass, carbon capture and storage, or direct air capture — that can optimally leverage local resources and capabilities to remove substantial CO2 and generate major socioeconomic benefits for local communities. If all 3,143 counties implement CDR, the US can generate 440,000 long-term jobs nationwide and achieve its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

Options and opportunities for CDR in all 3,143 US counties. The options are based on capacity and/or cost, weighted by the EEEJ (Energy Equity and Environmental Justice) index and Center for Disease Control’s SVI (Social Vulnerability Index) scores. | Source: Roads to Removal

I fell in love with this insightful map because it is an ode to the US’s vast diversity. Each county has a unique history, is uniquely affected by climate change, and has unique local resources it can mobilize to decarbonize its local economy and unleash unique local opportunities. This map shows that America is the ‘Land of Climate Opportunities.’ If the US unlocks all these grassroots opportunities, it can become a global climate leader.

I use this map in my new book, The Frugal Economy: A Guide to Building a Better Way with Less, to show how we can empower all 3,143 US counties to fully benefit from their equitable transition to a low-carbon economy.

2025: Shifting from national to local climate initiatives

2025 will mark the return of a climate skeptic as US President. Trump will mostly likely withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement for the second time, just as he did in 2017. He will also weaken or roll back major federal laws and national policies including the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) aimed at slashing emissions, building a clean energy-powered infrastructure, and creating millions of green industrial jobs.

I, however, believe that behind every major crisis lies a historic opportunity. For the United States as a nation, the return of Trump signals the end of the ‘Big Federal Government.’ But 2025 may also mark the rise of the Mighty Local Government.

It is time for visionary State Governors and city mayors across the US to pick up the leadership baton from federal institutions and launch bold initiatives to fight climate change and create green jobs at the local level.

Here are my top two recommendations on how US policymakers at the state and local level can join forces with academic, nonprofit, and private sector partners and citizen groups to unleash and capture 3,143 climate opportunities across America:

Implement hyperlocal, end-to-end value networks

Flush with funding from federal programs including the IRA and the CHIPS and Science Act, many states and counties are building green factories and investing in clean energies like hydrogen. But beefing up “supply-side” capabilities is not enough to shape new markets. You also need to enhance local demand to “absorb” the innovative, climate-friendly products and services developed locally.

As economist Amar Bhidé points out, the US’s true strength is its “venturesome consumption” — that is, “the willingness and ability of businesses and consumers to effectively use products and technologies derived from scientific research.” Counties across the US should build end-to-end hyperlocal value networks that connect venturesome local buyers and innovative suppliers of climate solutions.

In early 2023, carbon removal and utilization startups CarbonCure and Heirloom ran a successful pilot project that captured CO2 from the atmosphere and locked it permanently in concrete, which was used in local construction projects. This entire value chain — the carbon capture facility, the concrete batch plant and the construction sites — was located within the San Francisco Bay Area. The partners intend to build similar end-to-end value networks in other states, including Illinois and Florida, that will capture and utilize CO2 for local applications.

Likewise, Whisper Aero — a Crossville, Tenn-based startup that builds super-quiet electric jets — launched ReConnecTN, a cross-sector coalition that aims to make the Volunteer State the pioneer in sustainable Regional Air Mobility (RAM). The RAM market is poised to reach $115 billion by 2035.

The EFI Foundation’s Hydrogen Demand Initiative (H2DI) aims to shape demand-side hydrogen markets across the US. H2DI will mobilize private investments to de-risk and speed up the deployment of clean hydrogen produced by the seven Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs) across the US. By proactively securing demand for clean hydrogen in energy-intensive industry and heavy-duty transportation in multiple regions, H2DI seeks to maximize the economic impact of H2Hubs — which has received $7 billion in funding from the US government.

Political and economic leaders at county, city or tribal level can consult the Department of Energy’s interactive community benefits map that shows all the clean energy projects funded by the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) that are currently in demonstration or deployment phase across the US. Most of these projects are focused on bolstering the supply side of a clean economy.

Informed by this map, local leaders can rapidly shape new markets and create demand-side opportunities, as illustrated above, to absorb the innovative clean energy technologies and skills being developed in their communities — especially in rural areas. By building these hyperlocal, end-to-end value networks, counties across the US can rapidly capture the full socio-economic value of projects funded by the IRA, BIL, and CHIPS and Science Act.

Skill youth and retrain legacy workers

According to the non-profit Climate Power, the IRA has created over 334,000 clean energy jobs across the US in two years. That seems impressive. Yet, a report by the Climate Jobs National Resource Center shows that the IRA has the potential to generate over 3.9 million well-paying jobs related to clean energy. Unfortunately, filling these nearly 4 million job openings will be an uphill task as almost all US states face a shortage of qualified workers.

An analysis by the Political Economy Research Institute (UMass PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst reveals that 20 occupations in the US will face a total labor shortage of 1.1 million workers to fill new jobs created altogether by the IRA, BIL, and CHIPS and Science Act.

Several states are already feeling the pinch. For instance, Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer TSMC — which received $11.6 billion in CHIPS Act funding — has yet to start making chips in its Phoenix, Arizona fabrication facility as it can’t find locally enough talented personnel. McKinsey estimates that the US chip manufacturing sector will face a shortage of 146,000 skilled workers by 2029.

How do we solve the skills shortage crisis in the US? The low-hanging fruit, and the most humane thing to do, would to be to retrain and upskill the 1.7 million workers in fossil-fuel-based industries displaced by the energy transition. MIT researchers have developed an interactive US map (another map I love!) that pinpoints the counties with high employment vulnerability due to the energy transition.

Overall Embodied Carbon Factors (ECFs) in metric tonnes of CO2e per employee at the county level across the US | Source: Assessing the distribution of employment vulnerability to the energy transition using employment carbon footprints (2024).

State policymakers can use this analytical data to prioritize worker retraining and upskilling investments in the most climate-vulnerable counties — thus, enabling equitable transition across the US.

Furthermore, we need to educate (no pun intended!) the youth that they don’t need a PhD, a master’s degree, or even a bachelor’s degree to get a job in the clean energy and green manufacturing sector. A UMass PERI study shows that nearly 70 percent of the jobs created by the IRA, BIL and CHIPS Act are available to workers without a bachelor’s degree — compared to the 59 percent jobs in the entire US workforce.

Practical, on-the-job training through apprenticeship programs, where you “earn while you learn,” are the best way to onboard our youth into the clean economy. States can follow the lead of Minnesota, where Governor Tim Walz catalyzed a $3 million investment to boost apprenticeship opportunities and train workers in clean technologies.

Political leaders at the state and local level must take a long-term view and realize that the clean economy is not just another economy, but the economy of the 21st century. As such, we need to anticipate future jobs in the clean economy in every sector and proactively train US workers on skills in demand in decades to come — as Brazil has just done by using its Labor Market Foresight Model.

In the same spirit, Fortifying America’s Future: Pathways for Competitiveness — a paper co-produced by the Federation of American Scientists and Aspen Strategy Group — offers sound strategies to develop career pathways from K-12 into high-demand clean-economy industries to boost US competitiveness in a rapidly evolving global marketplace. Individual states and cities across the US can use these strategies as a baseline and adapt them to fit their local needs and resources.

The 3,143 US counties — and their leaders — should reframe the climate crisis as a generational opportunity to build a durable future. By forging hyperlocal value networks and proactively training their local workforce counties can unleash 3,143 diverse climate opportunities across the country.