Over the past month, a stark realization about who is going to solve the climate crisis has set in. Hint: It’s not going to be the federal government. A deeply politicized Supreme Court gutted the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to limit carbon pollution, and a coal company owner (U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin) joined all 50 Republicans in the Senate to defeat President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” clean energy bill.

Oil corporations are charging sky-high prices at the pump and then using record profits to help lock up federal climate action in these fossilized federal institutions. Increasingly, the 69% of Americans who support transitioning the U.S. economy to 100% clean energy by 2050 are realizing that the government of the U.S. isn’t going to ride to rescue; instead it’s going to have to be all of us.

And green shoots are already coming up through the asphalt. Hawaii’s entrepreneurs continue to crank out new technologies that beat out old-school approaches hands down, and local elected leaders are pioneering policies that can help turn the tide. In fact, at the same time that progress melted away at the federal level (during this month’s record heat waves, no less), our state and local governments moved forward policies that tackle the climate crisis head on and continue Hawaii’s push for a cleaner, greener, and more affordable modern economy.

On July 5, Gov. David Ige signed House Bill 1801 into law, which will dramatically lower energy use and utility bills in state facilities. This opens the door for local companies like Shifted Energy, which utilizes machine learning and demand response in buildings to save taxpayer dollars while also providing green jobs for our local workforce.

Just a week later, the governor signed Senate Bill 3158, which will provide low- to moderate-income households access to cleaner, cheaper micromobility transportation. If you’ve traveled to any other city lately, you know that zero-emission electric scooters and bikes — like our expanding Biki bikeshare system — are fast becoming the preferred commuting option for younger generations.

County governments are also leading on climate to help fill the federal vacuum. Last week, the Honolulu City Council’s Bill 22 was signed into law — a common-sense ordinance that ensures transparency in energy use in large buildings across the island. The more building managers are aware of their energy use, the more likely they are to tap climate tech companies like Stem and Bright Light Systems to help them reduce their energy use and cool off the planet. In a time of inflation, those cost savings to the business tenants in those buildings can help keep costs lower to customers as well.

The reality is that climate change isn’t “someone else’s problem.” It’s ours. From local government, to startups like Stem and Shifted Energy, to business groups like the Hawaii Executive Collaborative, to our schools and universities, and nonprofits like Elemental Excelerator, we aren’t waiting for Washington. We are building a better world together by turning away from fossils, and shifting our money, our votes and our policies to directly support the growth of a new, truly green economic future that our kids won’t have to sweat.

Josh Stanbro is a policy fellow at Elemental Excelerator, a nonprofit for funding climate tech deployment.