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With residents in the southeastern United States still recovering from the devastation of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, extreme weather events and the environment are on the minds of many Americans. Climate change is an existential challenge that requires changes in personal behavior and large-scale innovation at the policy level.

, the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College and a senior fellow at the聽Scott Institute for Energy Innovation(opens in new window) has researched and written extensively on clean air, energy and climate. In the following interview, she discussed the environmental issues she believes policymakers 鈥� and voters 鈥� should focus their attention next.

Climate issues that matter most

The paired problems of聽 and climate change are among the most pressing issues related to聽 in the world today, Clay said.聽 in the U.S. live in places with unhealthy levels of air pollution, according to the American Lung Association. Health risks including stroke, heart disease, lung cancer and pneumonia are聽.

鈥� is more about particulate matter, where climate change is more about CO2 emissions,鈥� Clay explained. 鈥淏ut many strategies to attack one of those problems will impact the other.鈥�

Other major challenges are clean drinking water and water pollution. While Americans generally have high-quality drinking water, Clay said, that鈥檚 not true everywhere. Even in the United States, people are concerned about聽 补苍诲听 in drinking water. For those who rely on well water to drink, contamination 蹿谤辞尘听,听 补苍诲听 can be an issue as well.

Globally,听 have access to safely managed drinking water that鈥檚 local, available when needed and free from contamination, according to the World Health Organization. That statistic means one in four people do not.

鈥淎round the world, many NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and other organizations are focused on clean drinking water,鈥� Clay said.

Water pollution, likewise, is a聽 and other parts of the world. 鈥淲e saw at the Paris Olympics how聽 is an issue,鈥� Clay said, recalling delays in the triathlon events scheduled in the Seine River.

Where should policymakers focus their efforts?

Among myriad environmental concerns, elected officials must prioritize where to allocate time, effort and resources. Balancing what鈥檚 realistic and what鈥檚 urgent in terms of climate change, Clay said that investments in reducing air pollution 补苍诲听 the electricity grid should be among lawmakers鈥� highest priorities.聽

鈥淚鈥檓 optimistic about things like battery storage for electricity,鈥� Clay said. 鈥淧rices need to come down and we鈥檙e not there yet, but we鈥檝e made a lot of progress.鈥澛�

Natural gas and gasoline consumption are likely to decline and be replaced eventually with electricity, Clay said. That transition requires investments in upgrading the energy grid to allow for the more efficient movement of electricity.

The increased need for electricity is already evident. For example, data centers that support the world鈥檚 technology needs today聽 per floor space of a typical commercial office building.聽

As technology continues to grow, society will increasingly rely on electricity to power their homes and lifestyles.

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to consume a lot more electricity, and so we need electricity transmission upgrades, we need investments in EV (electric vehicle) charging and we need batteries,鈥� Clay said.

Batteries allow renewable energy to be used more evenly throughout the day and the year. Effective and efficient battery storage would reduce the need for energy companies to rely on聽 when the wind isn鈥檛 blowing or the sun isn鈥檛 shining to produce wind and solar energy 鈥斅爋r when the energy demand is particularly high, such as during intense heat waves.

is another key priority policymakers must continue to focus on, according to Clay.聽

One challenge in tackling water pollution is the existing construction of sewer systems across much of the U.S.聽 丑补惫别听 that collect both sanitary sewage and stormwater runoff into the same pipeline. Combined systems can overflow during heavy rains, causing raw sewage to flow into local waterways. That contamination has an effect on fish and wildlife as well as recreational activities like swimming and boating.

Mitigating the system to protect clean drinking water and avoid polluted waterways can be expensive, Clay explained, as it often requires building a second system so that sewage is sent to water treatment plants and stormwater runoff is carried to local water storage basins and waterways.

Rain gardens and urban green spaces are wonderful ways to reduce runoff and can complement these larger infrastructure solutions but are not effective at the scale needed. 鈥淔ixing the thing that鈥檚 wrong 鈥� having a separate sanitary sewer system 鈥� is the only real solution,鈥� Clay explained.

Where are we now? The answer might be more positive than you think.

Some of the necessary investments to address these challenges are already happening. Despite having names that don鈥檛 sound particularly focused on the environment, two pieces of recent legislation are making a difference, Clay said.

The 2021聽 and the 2022聽 provide substantial funding to improve the聽 补苍诲听, to address the need for聽 and to聽. The聽 called the measures 鈥渢he most ambitious environmental laws in U.S. history.鈥�

The Department of Energy (DOE)鈥檚 resulting 2022聽 aims to deliver clean energy from where it鈥檚 produced to where it鈥檚 needed. Financed with more than $20 billion in federal funding, the DOE is聽 to support resilience, reliability and decarbonization.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocates聽 to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to improve the nation鈥檚 drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. The funding is earmarked to聽, eliminate聽 蹿谤辞尘听 and upgrade sewer systems and wastewater treatment facilities to聽. The Inflation Reduction Act includes $4 billion to address drought in the western United States 补苍诲听 on ranches and farms across the nation.

In addition to federal funding, Clay said that certain policies on vehicle, power plant and methane emissions have been effective in moving the needle on climate change.

鈥淭hese policies go through an extensive review process, so they鈥檙e typically implementing the correct strategies,鈥� Clay explained. 鈥淎lthough sometimes, once they鈥檙e in place, it becomes evident that they鈥檙e not stringent enough.鈥澛�

Most of the real progress on decarbonization has been made in the electricity sector, Clay said, because of the switch from coal to renewable energy. One upcoming challenge is how to get buy-in from homeowners and businesses to transition renewable energy.

鈥淚f we can get widespread uptake of things like heat pumps to heat homes instead of natural gas or oil furnaces, and if we can make progress on renewable energy in the transportation sector, that will have an impact,鈥� Clay explained.

Clay鈥檚 current research focuses on the historical patterns of carbon emissions as well as energy transitions and home heating. She鈥檚 hopeful that understanding past trends with energy transitions can聽 on energy policy.

Policymakers in the U.S. and around the world face a weighty responsibility as they continue to address both the causes and effects of climate change. Clay鈥檚 insights highlight the importance of continued research and evidence-based decision making to shape effective environmental policy. The path forward demands a collective effort from policymakers, researchers and the public to foster a resilient and sustainable world for generations to come.