Can a Republican candidate win by going green?

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) calls climate change a “pseudoscientific theory.” Donald Trump says it’s a “hoax.”  And Ben Carson suggests that we’re actually headed for an ice age. None of this is surprising – across the board, the GOP presidential frontrunners either deny that climate change exists or insist that, even if it does, it’s not our fault and we shouldn’t do anything about it.  

This is not a new dynamic for the Republican Party. But I believe it’s a shortsighted one. Not just for the planet – for them. Because here’s the thing: there is a powerful conservative, pro-business case for conservation and action on climate change.  

{mosads}Right now, it’s very hard for a GOP candidate to win a primary by arguing for action on climate change. But I think candidates are missing an incredible opportunity to distinguish themselves from the field, dilute an issue Democrats have majority support on, and garner support from the business community. If they make the right arguments – arguments that rely on conservative principles, not liberal rhetoric – they can win the GOP voters to this cause and patch a dangerous vulnerability to the party in the general election. 

First of all, let’s unpack the real numbers on what GOP voters think about climate change. Most Republican voters think humans are contributing to climate change, including 54 percent of conservative Republicans, according to a recent poll by three prominent Republican polling firms. The super-conservative caucus-goers of Iowa clearly don’t represent the views of Republican voters across the country – let alone the independent swing voters needed to win the general election. For instance, in the key swing states of Colorado, Iowa and Virginia, voters agree by a two-to-one margin that we need to do more to address climate change, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll. 

Second, action on climate change is what the business community – the traditional ally of the Republican Party – both wants and needs. Just ask the $4.6 trillion insurance industry. As the journal Science reported, insurance claims related to weather catastrophes “have more than doubled each decade since the 1980s, adjusted for inflation.” Eight of the ten most expensive hurricanes in U.S. history have all hit since 2004, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), “between 1990 and 2009, hurricanes and tropical storms accounted for 45.2 percent of total catastrophe losses, and the rate and intensity of these storms is predicted to increase with global climate change.” These kinds of losses are a huge drain on our entire economy. It’s why Chris Christie – governor of the state hit hardest by the Superstorm Sandy – is one of the few Republicans willing to acknowledge the reality of climate science. And it’s why more and more companies aren’t just supporting climate change legislation but are also finding ways on their own to reduce their impact on the environment. 

Which brings me to my third point: It is the private sector that will lead the way on a solution to this problem. That’s an argument that’s directly in line with bedrock conservative principles. The GOP field continues to hold onto the outdated notion that addressing climate change inherently kills jobs. But that ignores the last several decades of business trends, including what I’ve personally witnessed in my decades building the green building industry and the LEED rating system from the ground up. 

Sustainability offers the possibility of trillions in profit, and letting loose the forces of the free market is the only way we can address climate change in a substantial way before it’s too late. Take Siemens and GE, two world-renowned companies. In 2014, Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio brought in €33 billion for the company – and eliminated 428 million tons of CO2 emissions for its customers. And GE’s Ecomagination program has added $200 billion to the company’s top line since 2005, with sales of green products growing four times as fast as their other industrial product lines. These are the kinds of profit-driven, capitalism-based solutions to climate change that Republican candidates should be holding up as our path forward. 

I can understand why so many Republican candidates are skittish of embracing green principles on the campaign trail. The environmental community has spent many mistaken decades antagonizing the business community and Republicans, slowing progress toward their goal and creating enemies where they should be recruiting allies. 

But if Republican candidates started emphasizing capitalism as the solution to climate change and recognizing that profit-driven strategies can dramatically reduce our carbon footprint, they just might find Republican voters and independent voters flocking to support their bid for president while they also dissolve a major wedge issue that Democratic candidates use to win over key voting blocs. And hey, they can save the planet in the process. 

Fedrizzi is the CEO and founding chair, U.S. Green Building Council. His new book Greenthink is out from Disruption Books.