It’s getting hot in here, will either Presidential campaign deliver on climate action?

Sept. 5, 2024

Author: Andrea C. Simonelli, Ph.D.

With record heat (yet again) this past year, the next President will play a pivotal rule in either helping or hurting the long-term viability of life on Earth.

A dry river bed in California — As global temperatures rise, extreme heat and drought can increase the risk and severity of wildfires and famine

The year 2023 saw record greenhouse gas atmospheric concentrations, record high temperatures, record high oceanic heat, record high sea levels [1] and the latest IPCC report explains that at our current path of carbon emissions, the target of 1.5C will be irreversibly out of reach by 2030 [2]. With no time to lose, the US can either lead the global community or willfully surrender it.

Harris

The Harris campaign has yet to roll out any formal or detailed climate policy, but hasn’t avoided the topic. During the DNC Harris spoke about many things, but explained that of the "fundamental freedoms" at stake in this election, these include— "the freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis" [3]. Equating environmental protections to fundamental American freedoms is a bold move, but one that signals that she intends to take climate change seriously.

There is a general agreement that a Harris White House is expected to build on Biden’s climate legacy; continuing to set ambitious goals and emphasizing that climate investments mean new jobs, lower costs, and help for families [4]. While VP, she not only spoke on Biden’s climate initiatives, but made connections to climate justice emphasizing that poor, rural, and Native communities will be the least able to recover from climate impacts [5].

Harris also has a record of action on climate prior to her time in the White House. She was one of the attorneys who launched an investigation into whether Exxon misled the public about the risks of climate change and even blocked President Obama’s plan to allow fracking in the Pacific Ocean [6]. Standing up to a popular President -in her own party- on environmental protections demonstrates that her commitment to a clean future is more than just a rubber stamp on the Democrats status quo. Harris was also an original sponsor of Green New Deal in 2019 [7].

Trump

Former President Trump’s record on climate issues has been erratic, at best. During his presidential term, he consistently down played or rejected the premise of a man-made changing climate itself. He has called climate change "mythical", "nonexistent", or "an expensive hoax" [8] and suggested the cold weather disproves the existence of climate change [9]. And yet, just prior to his presidential run, he was a signatory to a New York Times advert expressing the need to support action on climate change [10]. During his time in office, Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement, tried to dismantle climate regulations, and put oil lobbyists in positions of power [11].

A second Trump Presidency will likely reverse Biden’s climate policies as a starting point. The Project 2025 policy document outlines, in specific detail, additional changes to the federal bureaucracy favored by the Heritage Foundation and endorsed by Trump. These include:

A dismantling of National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with the elimination of most of its functions, with some privatized and/or sent to the states.
Downsizing of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) which is the source of NOAA’s “alarmism”; this research should be disbanded.
The elimination of the Treasury Department’s “Climate Hub” and withdrawing the US from international climate change agreements.
Promoting investment in oil and gas while reversing support for international efforts to promote responsible investment.
A reversal of the Biden Administration’s climate agenda [12].

Choose your future

A Harris administration will work with the international community to lower global emissions and invest in green jobs. A Trump administration will decentralize and defund climate science, creating a nation that adapts on a state-by-state basis. The former will usher in hope for not only young Americans, but for all people, that there will be a livable future for humanity. The latter will retreat from the rest of the developed world, leaving the most vulnerable to suffer the most as Earth continues to warm unabatedly. How hot do you want it?