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September 30, 2020

From the U.S. Presidential Campaign Debate

“We have the lowest carbon. Look at our numbers now. We are doing phenomenal.”

-- The U.S. President

GreenPolicy360.... the president's statement is far from the truth

Via NBC News / On the Climate Change Question Asked by Moderator Chris Wallace

• https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/09/30/climate-change-first-debate-full-video-2020-dbx-vpx.cnn

• https://grist.org/politics/its-been-12-years-since-presidential-debate-moderators-asked-about-climate-change/

President Trump: “We have the lowest carbon. Look at our numbers now. We are doing phenomenal.”

“That's the biggest lie he's told tonight, and there have been some biggies,” Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, tweeted after Trump’s assertion about having the “lowest” carbon emissions.

Biden, on the other hand, has made climate change a focus of his campaign. In July, he released a $2 trillion plan to build a clean energy economy that includes the ambitious goal of achieving a 100 percent clean electricity standard by 2035.

Though Biden’s climate plan is not as far-reaching as the proposed Green New Deal championed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., it has been met with praise from climate scientists and environmental activists.

Trump attempted to sow divisions between Biden’s camp and the supporters of the Green New Deal, claiming that Biden’s failure to support the plan meant he “just lost the radical left.”

Ocasio-Cortez dismissed the notion, tweeting in response: “Our differences are exactly why I joined Biden’s Climate Unity Task Force — so we could set aside our differences & figure out an aggressive climate plan to address the planetary crisis at our feet. Trump doesn’t even believe climate change is real.”

In the debate, Biden also reiterated his plan to rejoin the Paris Agreement and work with global partners to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Trump announced plans in 2017 to quit the landmark climate accord, a move that has been widely criticized by climate researchers.

Yet for all the debate’s vitriol, experts said, it’s important that climate change was a featured topic. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in March found that 60 percent of Americans say that climate change is a major threat to the U.S., up from 44 percent in 2009. The inclusion of climate issues in the presidential debate “reflects the heightened political and grassroots interest in the subject.”

More on the U.S. presidential debate at Strategic Demands

• https://strategicdemands.com/the-day-after-the-debate/

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