Climate change in presidential debate contrasts Biden’s record with Trump’s lies

Presidential debate: Biden’s energy policies contrasted with Trump’s climate lies

By Joseph Winters & Grist

During Thursday’s CNN debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, climate change was only discussed for a few minutes during the more than hour-and-a-half-long back-and-forth.

This was the first time the two candidates faced off on a debate stage since October 2020. Eager for a showdownBiden’s team has sought to warn voters about the growing extremism that Trump promises to bring in a second term, and Trump has been keen to scrutinise his rival’s allegations of cognitive decline.

Much of the debate focused on hot-button issues like immigration and the economy, with Biden speaking raspyly and stammering at times, while Trump went on an expletive-filled tirade and unleashed a barrage of falsehoods that hosts Dana Bash and Jake Tapper could barely contain.

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But a little over halfway through, Bash asked whether the candidates would do anything to address the climate crisis as president. Neither candidate answered the question directly, but Biden pointed to policies his administration has put in place to spur the development of clean-energy technologies. Trump gave a rambling non-response.

“I want totally clean water and totally clean air,” Trump said. “And we got that. We had water, we had record numbers, we had all forms of energy, we had everything.” He said the “best environmental numbers ever” had been achieved during his presidency, and that the statistics were given to him by an adviser just before he took the stage. In fact, Trump Over 200 environmental policies have been rolled back. During his four years in office.

Trump also said: Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement — a “scam” for the U.S., in his words. He spent his allotted climate time speaking about unrelated topics, including support from police groups and Biden’s border policy.

Biden, meanwhile, said he had enacted “the most sweeping climate change legislation in history.” Inflation Control Act of 2022This includes $369 billion in clean energy tax credits and funding for climate and energy programs. United States Climate Corps He launched a federal program to engage young people in landscape restoration, renewable energy deployment and other green projects, and reiterated the importance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

Combined with existing policies, the Inflation Control Act would reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by Up to 42 percent by 2030This puts the country close to meeting its pledge under the Paris Agreement to halve emissions compared to 2005 levels by the end of the decade.

This contrasts sharply with predictions about the climate impact of a second Trump term. An analysis published by Carbon Brief in MarchA second Trump administration could see U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increase by about 4 billion tonnes by 2030 compared to a second Biden term. This increase could result in an additional $900 billion in climate damages worldwide. The analysis predicts that if Trump were to roll back all of the Biden administration’s major climate policies, it would be “virtual certainty” that the U.S. would miss its 2030 climate goals.

“Given the scale of U.S. emissions and their global impact, this election is crucial for any hopes of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees,” Carbon Brief said.

Apart from Bash’s one question, Trump was the only one to make a climate-related reference during the debate. He blamed the US budget deficit on failed oil and gas extraction, which he called “liquid gold under our feet,” and called Biden’s climate policies the “new green scam.” On January 6, 2021, the day he called on his supporters to stage an insurrection at the US Capitol, Trump also used the term “energy independent” to describe the country.

This is consistent with some of the former president’s previous messaging on climate change, but his history of erratic and contradictory statements makes it difficult to parse what he actually believes. He has sometimes said that climate change is “hoaxHe has claimed the war was engineered by China, and while he has acknowledged its existence, he has also questioned its connection to human activity.

More recently, President Trump has downplayed the severity of the climate crisis. At a campaign rally in January, he called young people protesting climate change “people who are not racist.”immature” and yelled, “Go home to your mama.'” If elected, he has pledged to “dig, dig, dig” and reverse the Biden administration’s climate change policies, such as the Control Inflation Act.

Climate change has never featured prominently in a presidential debate before, but climate change experts expressed disappointment at the brevity and shallowness of Thursday’s debate. “We’re spending more time talking about golf than we are about the climate. What a world we live in.” Jeff Goodell tweeted. author The heat kills you firstThis refers to a bizarre exchange between the two candidates in which Biden challenged Trump to a game of golf.

Other observers shared deeper concerns about Biden’s performance, including mistakes that his opponents were quick to point out.

“I expect him to review his performance in Thursday night’s debate, withdraw from the race, and defer the selection of the Democratic nominee to the party convention in August.” New York Times opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof writes:.

This story begins: GristA nonprofit media organization covering climate, justice and solutions.