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Simon Bergbom

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What would a Harris presidency mean for the climate?

After weeks of global angst, on July 21, President Biden announced his decision to withdraw as the Democratic presidential nominee. Shortly after his unprecedented move, President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. While the Democratic Convention is not taking place until August 19, and Harris could hypothetically be challenged, all signs point to Harris being the next Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election. In the wake of this new political reality, a Harris nomination raises an important question: what would a Harris presidency mean for the future of the climate?
https://youtu.be/oUh_vkgm6_A?feature=shared

2020 CNN Climate Town Hall with Sen. Kamala Harris
When then-Senator Harris ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020, she presented one of the most ambitious climate agendas ever proposed by a presidential contender. During her 2020 campaign, she described climate change as “an existential threat to us as a species” and vowed to “hold polluters accountable for the damage they inflict upon our environment and set us on a path to a 100 percent clean economy.” Her depictions of the severity of the climate crisis were bolstered by bold policy ideas, such as implementing a carbon tax, ending new oil leases on federal land, banning fracking and offshore drilling, and using the Justice Department to investigate and hold accountable big oil for destroying our environment.
However, in her role as Vice President in the Biden Administration, Harris’ ambitious climate agenda was tempered to align with broader White House policies. Now that Harris has been elevated to the top of the Democratic ticket, her grandiose agenda to combat the climate crisis faces its true test.
Yet, there is hope that Harris will utilize her presidential run to put climate at the forefront of American policy again. Her track record on climate supports that she would be more progressive than the Biden Administration when it comes to climate policy and environmental justice. Notably, Senator Harris, alongside Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, co-sponsored the Green New Deal (which President Biden did not fully support), a non-binding roadmap for how to transition the United States to a 100% clean energy by 2030. To pass this bill, Harris even publicly stated that she would be willing to eliminate filibuster rules if Republicans maintained their opposition to the Green New Deal.
On a state level, then-California Attorney General Harris prosecuted several high-profile cases against oil companies. She successfully won lawsuits against oil giants, including Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips, and secured a $86 million lawsuit against Volkswagen over its emissions scandal. Harris also led an investigation into ExxonMobil over its flawed climate change disclosures.
The next president of the United States will forever shape the future of our climate. If Kamala Harris were to win the election, she would have the potential to hold the oil and gas industry accountable for its role in fueling the climate crisis while also transitioning the U.S. economy into a cleaner and greener future. While Harris’ record demonstrates a willingness to take these drastic steps to address the climate crisis, whether she will in facto leverage this and implement an ambitious climate agenda remains unclear. A good indicator of how central climate issues will be in her campaign might be her choice of vice president, which she is set to announce at the Democratic Convention, August 19 - 22.
Regardless, in a presidential race where the opponents are “drill baby drill” Donald Trump and climate change skeptic J.D Vance, the choice is simple. Unless you think you just fell out of a coconut tree and the climate crisis is not real, Kamala Harris is your only option.

        Re-watch Climate Week NYC