Harris vs. Trump: Where the Candidates Stand on the Climate Crisis

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WASHINGTON — Environmental experts are warning American voters that whoever takes over the White House could blaze a trail forward or pull the world backward at a critical moment for the climate crisis.

“The U.S. election will be one of the key moments that determine the entire world’s ability to limit warming,” said Caroline Brouillette, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada.

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The razor-thin race for the White House comes as American communities reel from the devastating effects of two hurricanes that many experts say have been exacerbated by climate change.

The United Nations has said climate change is the greatest crisis facing humanity today, and Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have starkly different plans for how, or even if, their administrations would respond.

Observers say the vice president’s record suggests a leader who is taking the issue seriously. She is expected to follow the path set by the Biden administration, which has introduced historic legislation to support and expand the clean energy economy.

On the other hand, experts warn that the first Trump administration was a devastating blow to environmental regulation and climate policy. If he wins, they say, Trump would go even further.

“It could be worse this time,” said Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen Action, a climate change advocacy group.

Trump’s first administration saw sweeping efforts to roll back more than a hundred environmental protections. The Republican president also withdrew from the Paris Agreement, an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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During Trump’s term, the Environmental Protection Agency shrank and the words “climate change” were removed from its website.

“It was a punch in the gut,” said Raul Garcia of Earthjustice Action.

“He undid long-standing protections that have been relied on since the 1970s… to keep our environment as healthy as possible. Regulation after regulation, we saw him get rid of these requirements in a very ad hoc, complicated and often illegal way.”

Trump is unlikely to have plans for global warming this time around. In the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Helene, he called climate change “one of the greatest scams of all time.”

The 2024 Republican platform proclaims “DRILL, BABY, DRILL” and says America will “become energy independent and even dominant again.” There is no talk about climate change.

Trump indicated he would pursue the Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark environmental economics legislation, and end incentives for the electric vehicle market.

Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, a blueprint for a hard right turn in the US government, but environmental experts suspect this will be the path he will follow.

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The document calls for “unleashing all American energy resources” by lifting federal restrictions on fossil fuel drilling on public lands and loosening restrictions on environmental permitting.

It proposes closing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and directing the National Weather Service to sell weather data only to private forecasters.

“As scary as it is, I think what we saw under the Trump 1.0 administration was just a test run when it comes to pushing back on climate action,” Brouillette said.

That plan would be a full-scale attack on climate progress, Moffitt added.

“(It) would set us back at a time when we can least afford it,” Moffitt said, referring to an expert report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warned the world to take immediate action to cut greenhouse gas emissions to limit global climate change. warming up to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“We are halfway through this defining decade where scientists say we must act and bend the emissions curve downward if we want to have any chance of preventing the worst of the worst of the climate crisis.”

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When President Joe Biden came to power, he reversed Trump’s policies, strengthened environmental regulations and rejoined the Paris Agreement.

The Inflation Reduction Act represented the largest infusion of government money into climate and clean energy initiatives. Harris provided the decisive vote in the Senate to approve the legislation.

The vice president has called climate change an existential threat. During her speech at the Democratic National Convention, she laid out what was at stake in November.

“The freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water and live free from the pollution fueling the climate crisis,” Harris said in Chicago.

As attorney general of California, she prosecuted oil companies for environmental violations. As a senator, Harris was an early co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, a non-binding blueprint for the clean energy transition within ten years.

She has previously proposed a climate pollution levy to “make polluters pay for greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere.”

“Harris has a very strong environmental record and will help us move forward. Building a clean energy economy is becoming increasingly demanding around the world, but we need to make sure those things are built here at home,” said Moffitt.

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“We can expand clean energy and reduce emissions at the same time.”

But Harris has also taken a more centrist turn since rising to the top as a Democrat. During the presidential debate, she boasted that the Biden-Harris administration had overseen “the largest increase in domestic oil production in history.”

She has also reversed a 2019 pledge to ban fracking.

Brouillette said there have been “outrageous attempts by both candidates to outmaneuver each other,” but a Trump presidency would put the world on a bleak path.

If the Republican leader prevails in November, Brouilette warned that the rest of the world will have to respond.

“It is more important than ever that all other major economies, including Canada, step up and demonstrate highly ambitious leadership on climate.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 26, 2024.

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