Former Vice President Joe Biden laid out a climate change plan on Tuesday that would pour $1.7 trillion of federal money into clean energy spending over a decade to bring U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
The Democratic front-runner’s plan is an effort to counter criticism from the party's left flank that he does not support aggressive action to fight climate change, which has emerged as a major theme early in the presidential race.
While short on details, Biden's plan mirrors many of his rivals' in calling for transitioning to clean energy sources and eliminating the emissions that are driving up temperatures, boosting sea levels and worsening weather disasters.Biden also said his campaign would refuse donations from fossil fuel executives and corporations, a marker that greens have used as a measure of how serious candidates are in combating the industry's efforts to slow climate policy.
And he said he would funnel federal revenues from eliminating the Trump tax cuts passed in late 2017 and ending tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry to finance a federal clean energy spending program. Biden would demand Congress pass climate change legislation his first year in office to create an enforcement mechanism for reducing emissions, make a “historic investment” in climate research and encourage “rapid deployment of clean energy” to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century.
“More severe storms and droughts, rising sea levels, warming temperatures, shrinking snow cover and ice sheets — it's already happening. We must take drastic action now to address the climate disaster facing the nation and our world,” Biden said in a statement.
“Science tells us that how we act or fail to act in the next 12 years will determine the very livability of our planet. That’s why I’m calling for a Clean Energy Revolution to confront this crisis and do what America does best — solve big problems with big ideas.
”Advisers to Biden said last month that his climate agenda would seek a “middle ground,” which quickly drew rebukes from progressives who said anything but aggressive action would leave the U.S. short of what climate scientists say is necessary to avert the worst effects of climate change. The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said last fall that nations have until 2030 to get on a path to net-zero carbon emissions by mid-century if they are to prevent global temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
Biden's plan seeks to quiet some of his critics by incorporating the broad tenets of the Green New Deal championed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and progressive activists who have elevated climate change in the national conversation.
Biden will take his climate change message to New Hampshire Tuesday, underscoring the balancing act he needs to pull off and attract younger environmentally-minded voters without losing support from older, blue-collar voters who fear federal climate policies will drive up energy costs. Biden will visit the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative in Plymouth and later hold a campaign event with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 490 in Concord.
Biden has sought to stake his ground as a blue collar champion even as activists with influence within the Democratic base have stressed greater urgency and a more aggressive response to climate change. That has at times strained relations with labor unions who have made up Democrats’ traditional power center, and several trade unions whose members work in the energy industry have been critical of the Green New Deal and its promise of economic and energy transition.
The Biden campaign said the $1.7 trillion federal investment in clean energy financed by eliminating tax cuts would drive $5 trillion in private, state and local investments. At the same time, he vowed it would not “leave any workers or communities behind,” a nod to providing a glidepath for economies and jobs dependent on the emissions-intensive industries.
“We can create new industries that reinvigorate our manufacturing and create high-quality, middle-class jobs in cities and towns across the United States,” Biden said in a statement. “We can lead America to become the world’s clean energy superpower.”
The plan also emphasized ensuring low-income and minority communities — as well as "frontline communities" that are exposed to pollution — have a voice in policy decisions and access to essentials like clean water.
Biden also said he would recommit the U.S. to the Paris climate agreement, which President Donald Trump has promised to withdraw from, and push countries to set even more ambitious domestic emissions targets. Many countries are still falling behind their Paris pledges, which climate scientists said are needed to be made more aggressive to deal with climate change.
Infrastructure would also be a focus, and Biden's plan called for encouraging work on regional climate resiliency plans and ensuring the electric grid, roads and bridges are designed to withstand the effects of climate change.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine