Gore is a compelling surrogate for climate action, and politicians know that having him as an ally is often a way to boost their own climate credentials. And while details of the Ivanka/Gore Climate Summit of 2016 have yet to emerge, it’s likely Ivanka — a savvy businesswoman — knows that simply meeting with Gore, regardless of substance, lends a credibility to her climate crusade that anonymously sourced articles in Politico or documentaries and discussions with DiCaprio could never give her.
Over the past decade, Gore has become one of the world’s most visible climate activists. In 2006, he starred in the Oscar-winning documentary on climate change, An Inconvenient Truth. In 2007, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for his commitment to sharing information about man-made climate change. During the 2016 campaign, Gore made headlines for campaigning alongside Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, joining Clinton in Miami to deliver a powerful speech on the need for climate action.
Then, over the weekend, New York Magazine reported that Leonardo DiCaprio sat down with Ivanka to talk about climate issues and gave her a copy of his climate change documentary, Before the Flood. But both of those accounts pale in comparison to the interest sparked by the news that Ivanka would meet with former Vice President Al Gore on Monday to discuss climate issues.
The news about Ivanka’s interest in climate change has come fast and furious over the past week. Last Thursday, Politico published an account from an anonymous source claiming that Ivanka hoped to make climate change “one of her signature issues,” and she was currently “in the early stages of exploring how to use her spotlight to speak out on the issue.”
When it comes to climate policy, President-elect Donald Trump’s inner circle is shaping up to be a bleak wasteland of climate denial and Koch-funded fossil fuel cronyism. So climate activists could be forgiven for clinging to what seems like a potential bright spot in the incoming Trump administration’s relationship with climate action: the emergence of First Daughter Ivanka Trump as a climate champion.
Curated from Ivanka Trump will not save the planet
