YCCD’s President Named to GreenBiz 30 Under 30

Kiera O’Brien, YCCD’s Founder and President, is one of this year’s GreenBiz 30 Under 30!

Kiera O’Brien, 21

Founder and President, Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends; Ketchikan, Alaska

Growing up in coastal Ketchikan, Alaska, the "salmon capital of the world," shaped Kiera O’Brien’s passions for conservation and policy. The Alaska Permanent Fund, which feeds proceeds from offshore oil drilling into residents’ bank accounts, helped pay O’Brien’s tuition at Harvard.

Dividends of a different stripe are central to a climate movement O’Brien is helping build. In 2018, she co-founded Students for Carbon Dividends, enlisting campus support from a mix of Republicans and Democrats. It advocates a carbon price, which emitters pay. Proponents say that unlike a tax, it reframes climate progress away from the language of personal sacrifice, instead dangling a cash carrot to the populace. The student group’s booth had a warm reception at the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year, and O’Brien voiced its cause on CNN.

"I really see this as a generational issue," says O’Brien, who launched Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends in December to continue the work post-graduation. "Young people just have so much more at stake and are so much less constrained by old party lines."

Aspiring to a behind-the-scenes policy career, O’Brien has interned for the U.S. Senate and American Conservative Union. Soon, she’ll pursue a master’s in climate and society at Columbia University.

Her hope is that there’s something in carbon dividends for everyone, and that conservatives can reclaim environmental footing they lost in the 1990s. O’Brien says she asks herself, "What can I be doing to convince my camp to sit at the table and debate what we should be doing — not if we should be doing anything?"

See the full list of 2020 honorees here.