With President Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris appears likely, though not guaranteed, to secure the Democratic presidential nomination.
As Vice President, Harris cast the decisive vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration’s signature achievement on climate change.
As Yale Climate Links contributor Barbara Grady previously reported, “The most important climate law in history, the Inflation Reduction Act, is catalyzing the U.S. economy’s shift toward clean energy and clean transportation, and the international The Energy Agency considers this change.
Harris has made clear throughout her career that she sees climate change as a major threat. “Across our world, communities are suffocated by drought, ravaged by floods and devastated by hurricanes,” he told leaders in a speech at the 2023 United Nations climate summit in Dubai. “Wildfire smoke clouds our skies.” Turning dark, rising sea levels threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. The urgency of this moment is clear. The clock is no longer ticking, it is ringing.
According to the New York Times, if elected president, Harris is widely expected to “work to protect the climate achievements of the Biden administration.”
By contrast, Trump falsely claims climate change is a hoax. During his tenure as president, he “repeated approximately 100 environmental regulations and withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement,” Grady reported. He has reduced the size of the Environmental Protection Agency and demanded that the word “climate change” be removed from its website. He has said repeatedly during this campaign that one of his top priorities is to increase oil and gas production and free up more public lands for “drilling, baby, drilling!”
If Trump wins a second term, he and his allies have said they would aim to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act and shrink the size of the EPA.
What is the 2025 plan? Trump, climate and a second term
“Plan 2025” is a 992-page conservative plan for Trump's second term that proposes eliminating the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, disbanding the National Weather Service, repealing Biden's clean energy subsidies and canceling the National Flood Insurance Program.
He also proposed drilling for oil in the Arctic and cutting government agencies' climate change efforts. This includes the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which, according to the authors, “should end the war on fossil fuels in developing countries and support responsible management of oil and gas reserves as the fastest way to end extreme situations “. Poverty and the need for indefinite foreign aid. “
Kamala Harris and climate change
Here, we summarize Harris’s views and actions on climate change, based on news and White House coverage.
She linked extreme weather to climate change.
“Every day, around the world, the impacts of the climate crisis are clear and vivid. We see it firsthand,” he said in a 2023 speech. “Across our country, we see communities devastated by drought. And suffocated, damaged by floods, and damaged by hurricanes.
He supports a Green New Deal, a carbon fee and increased government spending on climate change.
- As a 2020 presidential candidate, her climate plan “proposed $10 trillion in additional spending over ten years.” (New York Times)
- “Harris also proposes a 'climate pollution fee' that would make polluters pay for emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,” he said, noting that the Harris administration would increase enforcement and prosecution of fossil fuel companies. (ABC News)
- As a senator from California, Harris was a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, which proposed Roosevelt-style economic reforms to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to clean technologies. The Green New Deal has yet to be enacted.
It integrates climate change into foreign relations.
- Harris attended the 2023 United Nations Climate Summit in Dubai, where she “announced the United States' commitment to double energy efficiency and triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. At the same meeting, Harris announced a commitment of $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund to help developing countries adapt to climate challenges, although Politico reported that the amount “depends on the availability of funds,” according to the U.S. Treasury Department. (cereals)
- She organized “a roundtable in Bangkok that connected environmental activists with clean energy experts” and began “working with Caribbean countries on climate change” (The New York Times).
She connects climate change to justice.
- As Vice President, “Harris advocated for $20 billion for the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, designed to help disadvantaged communities facing climate impacts.” (Grain)
She is a fan of heat pumps.
- Heat pumps use electricity to heat and cool homes and are seen as a key way to reduce climate pollution. “I have great respect for the people who assemble and install them,” he said in a 2022 speech (White House).
She often links lower energy costs to renewable energy. Key quotes:
- “On average, homes that switch to electric heat pumps can save up to $500 per year on their energy bills. Because heat pumps don't burn oil or natural gas, they also mean cleaner air in your home.
- “As well as reducing costs and creating jobs, this investment will help us tackle the climate crisis.”
- “By helping families pay the upfront cost of energy efficiency upgrades to their homes, we also reduce energy bills, lower household costs, create jobs and combat the climate crisis. It’s all connected.
She noted that investments in renewable energy can create jobs. Key quotes:
- “Across the country, we’ve created more than 175,000 new clean energy jobs. And this is just the beginning. There’s more to come.
- Its Women in a Sustainable Economy initiative aims to provide job training for women in climate-smart industries.
He said he supports and is inspired by young climate activists.
- “These young leaders are leading our nation's response to climate change. As I know, their work is driven by their hope and determination. Hope, because they know we still have time to make changes. Their determination is Determination to correct course,” he said in 2023.
She has been an opponent of fracking.
- As a 2020 presidential candidate, “She also favors an outright ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which Mr. Biden opposes.” “Fracking is the injecting of water and chemicals into the ground at high pressure to extract materials that are difficult to mine. of oil or gas technology” (New York Times).
- As California's attorney general, he “challenged federal approval of offshore fracking off the California coast.” (New York Times)
He challenged polluting companies.
- As California attorney general, he “investigated whether ExxonMobil lied to the public and its shareholders about the risks climate change posed to its business and whether such conduct may have constituted securities fraud and violations of environmental laws, but the case did not No charges resulted. (New York Times)
- “Harris reached an $86 million settlement with Volkswagen for using emissions-cheating software and investigated ExxonMobil's climate change revelations. He also filed lawsuits against Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips for environmental violations at gas stations , resulting in an $11.5 million settlement and a criminal investigation into an oil spill at a Santa Barbara oil company in 2015 (Grain).
- As San Francisco District Attorney, “Harris established an environmental justice unit to address environmental crimes affecting San Francisco's poorest residents and prosecuted several companies, including U-Haul, for violating hazardous waste laws.” Harris Her environmental justice department was later promoted as the first of its kind in the nation. However, the investigation found that there were only a handful of lawsuits filed by this unit, and none of them were filed against major industrial polluters in the city. (cereals)
