There are a few things that you can pretty much guarantee will appear in a State of the Union address: discussions of the economy and national security, and since Reagan at least, a description of the state of the union as “strong” (even in the bleak days of early 2010, President Obama affirmed that “despite our hardships, our union is strong”).
One thing that has changed in the President's speeches over the last six years is the tack he has taken on climate change—when he’s addressed it at all. On Tuesday night, environmentalists, including May Boeve, Executive Director of the climate organization 350.org, hailed the SOTU, in which the President dedicated four full paragraphs to the climate crisis. It was, Boeve said, “a testament to the hard work of the millions of people who are a part of the growing climate movement.”
The past year has been big for climate awareness, in large part thanks to September’s Peoples Climate March, which brought 400,000 people together to demand action.
Tuesday night's remarks were a giant step forward, too—especially from 2011, when Obama mentioned climate change and the environment precisely zero times.
Here's a look back at previous years:
2010: In his first SOTU address Obama may have tried too hard to compromise on climate change, like so many things that year:
“I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. But here's the thing — even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy-efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future — because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation.”
The President also called for the passage of a comprehensive climate bill in his 2010 speech; the bill, which passed the House, died later that year in the Senate.
2011: The president made zero mention of climate change, never once uttered the term “the environment,” and only spoke of Earth when referring to America as the greatest nation on it.
2012: In the absence of any movement from Congress, Obama found himself in a tough spot.
“The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change. But there’s no reason why Congress shouldn’t at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation.”
Obama added that he would be directing his administration to develop clean energy on public lands, and directing the Department of Defense to make “one of the largest commitments to clean energy in history.”
2013: As in 2012, Obama declared he would act unilaterally on climate change, but this year his plan was more ambitious.
“[I]f Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.”
“For the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change. Now, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods — all are now more frequent and more intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science — and act before it’s too late.”
2014: Still struggling to get serious legislation passed, Obama focused on his executive actions.
“Over the past eight years, the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth. But we have to act with more urgency — because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought, and coastal cities dealing with floods. That’s why I directed my administration to work with states, utilities, and others to set new standards on the amount of carbon pollution our power plants are allowed to dump into the air. The shift to a cleaner energy economy won’t happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact. And when our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did.”
2015: Fresh off the historic agreement with China, this year Obama spent more time talking about climate change than ever before.
“In the Asia Pacific, we are modernizing alliances while making sure that other nations play by the rules – in how they trade, how they resolve maritime disputes, and how they participate in meeting common international challenges like nonproliferation and disaster relief. And no challenge – no challenge – poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.
2014 was the planet’s warmest year on record. Now, one year doesn’t make a trend, but this does – 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this century.
I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists; that we don’t have enough information to act. Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But you know what – I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and NOAA, and at our major universities. The best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we do not act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, conflict, and hunger around the globe. The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security. We should act like it.
That’s why, over the past six years, we’ve done more than ever before to combat climate change, from the way we produce energy, to the way we use it. That’s why we’ve set aside more public lands and waters than any administration in history. And that’s why I will not let this Congress endanger the health of our children by turning back the clock on our efforts. I am determined to make sure American leadership drives international action. In Beijing, we made an historic announcement – the United States will double the pace at which we cut carbon pollution, and China committed, for the first time, to limiting their emissions. And because the world’s two largest economies came together, other nations are now stepping up, and offering hope that, this year, the world will finally reach an agreement to protect the one planet we’ve got.”
It wasn't the just the length of his comments on climate change that were a departure for President Obama this year—he also made a statement by inviting Nicole Hernandez Hammer, a scientist who studies sea level rise, to sit with the First Lady. It was the first time a climate activist has been invited to the State of the Union. In the past, Obama has hosted scientists who work on clean energy projects: wind turbines and solar panels and electric vehicles.
The Republican response to Obama’s address on Tuesday was delivered by Iowa's Joni Ernst, a climate change skeptic who has called for dismantling the EPA. Keeping a Republican tradition alive, she did not mention global warming or the environment—no one tasked with delivering the GOP response has mentioned either since Obama took office.
(Additionally, the video of the President's address posted by John Boehner and GOP.gov edits out the section where Obama skewers the GOP-default stance of replying to concerns about climate change by saying ‘I’m not a scientist.’ The GOP's version jumps from Obama saying, “14 of the 15 warmest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this century,” to “The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security.”
One year doesn’t make a trend (to borrow a phrase from the President himself). But Obama is devoting more words to climate change every January—possibly motivated by increased public discourse, the Paris climate talks, or the end of his presidency looming large in his mind. For environmentalists, that’s movement in the right direction.