Evaluating Biden’s Climate Plan
Months after the Green New Deal made headlines in 2019, Joe Biden released his own Climate Plan – here we discuss what it is and if it’s the plan we need.
Where we are now: Urgent Action Now or Disastrous Consequences
“Fighting climate change is about survival and existence. Are we going to take action over the next few years to ensure our generation has a livable future, or are we going to continue to kick the can down the road and resign ourselves to live a life filled with chaos, violence, and uncertainty?”
–Varshini Prakash, Founder of Sunrise Movement, a movement of young people leading the way on climate
There is HOPE on climate change if we finally follow the advice of our scientists and do what is necessary much like what we have now done on the virus The path forward to a safe future will stimulate our economy and create millions of needed jobs. However, our window to a livable future is closing. This is the time for decisive action. This is the time for all of us to get involved.
HOW MANY YEARS DO WE HAVE TO ACT?
The importance of our present campaign comes from the urgency of climate change. Various organizations in the past several years have issued their research conclusions on how long we have to make substantial cuts globally or face the worst of climate change. Two years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said we had twelve years. However, when their very good scientists write a statement every 6 or 7 years it is edited line by line by politicians from the 195 members counties. What comes out of this process is much more a political statement than a scientific statement. From our reading of the research we cannot make a case for more than four years before nature takes over and we will just be witnesses to what happens.
CONSEQUENCES OF INADEQUATE ACTION
By the worst of climate change, scientists aren’t referring to our present fires and hurricanes. They are referring to ecological collapse, having little or no food on our tables, and extinction of the human race.
Biden’s Climate Plan
President Biden has a climate plan that is already better than any plan he has supported in the past although it still isn’t what it needs to be which is our task.
The plan includes:
- Important but limited elements of climate justice for communities that have been-damaged by emissions and pollution in the past
- Farmers changing their farming habits to sequester emissions
- Spending heavily on electric vehicles, mass transit and energy efficient building
- Electricity production being carbon free by 2030
- The hope that USA progress will encourage China, EU, Japan, South Korea and others
The plan fails to include:
- A ban on fracking — Methane leaked from fracked wells is up to 80x more potent than CO2, the gas we hear most about
- Dates for the ending of fossil extraction and fuel use which are early enough to avoid the worst of climate change
- Sufficient investment in research, infrastructure, frontline communities, and technology — More progressive versions of a Green New Deal allocate up to 8x the money of Biden’s Plan
- Attention to the voices of Communities of Color — Currently, the plan simple lists statistics and says it will stand up to fossil fuel companies, it does not say it will listen to or include these Communities
A BIG PROBLEM
Right now, Biden has said repeatedly he doesn’t support any limits on fracking, and he and Kerry have both supported market mechanisms in the past. Dr Hansen, Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and other individuals and organizations all came out against Waxman-Markey, the first big climate bill, in 2009 because it was built around market mechanisms. It has been shown time and time again that market mechanisms will not work, and instead give a false sense that real progress is being made.
ACTIVISTS ARE SKEPTICAL
We need to support what is good in his bill and push Biden hard to make the needed changes so as to protect the future of our children, grandchildren and ourselves. Many climate activists are deeply skeptical of Biden’s climate plan due to his past. Biden and Kerry, his climate ambassador, have both touted the Paris Accord as their biggest climate achievement. According to leading groups however, Paris was a desperate effort after years of failure to cobble together an agreement.
Dr. James Hansen, the most distinguished climate scientists in the world, has called the Paris Accord “BS and a fraud.” Dr. Hansen was the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies for over 30 years, directed the two most important pieces of climate research, sounded the first US climate alarm in 1988 at a congressional hearing, and supported a climate lawsuit for children.
Youth activist leader Greta Thunberg recently spoke out about Paris saying there is HOPE but WE ARE SPEEDING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION, a sentiment supported by António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General.
What We’re Doing, and How You Can Help
Biden has said he wants a vote on his plan during his first 100 days of office, meaning it could happen as early as early February. Because of this, Texas Drought Project has been busy since August of 2020 building a broad and diverse coalitions in 12 targeted Texas congressional districts. We are educating communities and representatives while simultaneously pushing President Biden to strengthen his climate plan. As the vote comes closer, Texas Drought Project will organize phone banks all over the state, unleash a robust social media, postcard, and letter writing campaign to get tens of thousands to contact their representatives through every possible channel.
Texas Drought Project and Texas Harambe Foundation do not engage, participate, or intervene in political campaign activity, and do not endorse or oppose any candidate for office.
