Today, over 50% of the world's population live in cities or urban areas. While cities only count for roughly 2% of global landmass, they contribute over 70% of CO2 emissions globally. With a significant environmental footprint, cities have the opportunity to be integral in climate change action. While many cities globally have begun to implement climate politics and targets, there is still a wide spectrum of engagement. Therefore, it's important to assess when and how cities tend to implement climate policy and why they engage in climate action. Through the Center of Environmental Politics, we are researching what factors lead small to medium sized cities in the state of Washington to implement these climate change policies. Random cities are selected, and data is being gathered largely by looking through the cities website's and surveying for statements of climate change and the resulting policies and goals. Currently, we are in the process of analyzing the data so no set results and conclusions can be resolved yet. However, the results of this research can help us determine the hurdles when bringing climate change rhetoric and action into the political sphere and potentially highlight the political atmosphere around climate change in Washington cities.

Both Germany and China are currently facing setbacks due to carbon emissions damaging the environment. These two nations are industrialized economies that depend on their productions of good for world economic power. One of the following goods each country predominantly creates is cars. Since transportation is a large proponent to the rise of carbon emissions globally, individuals are now looking at countries like Germany and China for solutions to the carbon problem. I investigated the similarity and dissimilarity in the responses these two nations took in their automobile industries towards climate change. More specifically, researching if a particular country incentivized a bigger need to steer away from carbon in their industrialized economy; such as more creation and implementation of electric vehicles, putting in place government policies to limit carbon emissions, and agreeing with their citizens' public opinion in response to issues and solutions. I have found that China has been more successful in limiting carbon emissions by vastly expanding their collection of electric vehicles and implementing strict climate policies. Germany had a later start to the electric vehicle industry and is rather making a smaller influence on their automobile industries. They have been hurt by these decisions, while China has come out very successful with its growing automobile industry. This research assists in understanding climate policy because it involves countries and industries that are at the forefront of the issue, and can hint at the repercussions of acting for and against a future of clean energy. 

The Green New Deal is an omnibus piece of legislation which proposes sweeping reforms to address climate change while also tackling poverty, discrimination, and other social ills. Although the Green New Deal has been the subject of great public attention, it remains unclear whether key elements of the Democratic party, such as unions, are interested in supporting the legislation in any meaningful sense. This research examines the reaction of labor to the Green New Deal and attempts to gauge both the quantity and intensity of labor union support of the Green New Deal. To accomplish this, I conducted a review of the websites of the top fifty labor unions in the United States, ranked by reported membership. For each labor union, I looked at two factors; whether or not the union had explicitly endorsed the Green New Deal, and the number of sub-pages I had to navigate in order to find a mention of the Green New Deal. I cataloged these results and also made note of any irregularities and emerging trends in the data. The results paint a picture of labor unions as largely reluctant to engage in discourse regarding the Green New Deal, even when the organizations have been vocal on the subject of climate change in the past. Mentions of the Green New Deal, if present, are buried in archives and multiple sub-pages. These results suggest a clear point of weakness for proponents of the Green New Deal, and an examination of the causes of this weakness may offer insight into the characteristics necessary to the creation of politically viable climate legislation.