Presidential candidate Kamala Harris released a $10 trillion plan Wednesday to combat climate change, pledging to achieve 100% net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the entire economy by 2045.
The price tag for her plan, representing a mix of public and private funding, is the second highest of all climate plans proposed, topped only by Bernie Sanders’ $16.3 trillion figure.
And her timeline for carbon neutrality, or net-zero emissions, is faster than the mid-century target set by most other candidates, a timeline that U.N. climate scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. Net-zero emissions means that no more carbon emissions are produced within the country than are eliminated from the atmosphere.
Harris seeks for the U.S. use 100% carbon-neutral electricity by 2030, while cutting overall U.S. emissions 50% by that time. She also wants all new passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. to be zero-emission by 2035.
Climate activists were anticipating a climate plan from Harris, who had lagged behind other high-polling candidates such as Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders in releasing aggressive plans that share a goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions.
She raced to release the plan ahead of CNN’s unprecedented seven-hour town hall Wednesday night focused solely on climate change. The event will give the candidates the opportunity to stake a claim as the “climate candidate,” a designation Washington Gov. Jay Inslee gave up when he exited the race last month.
Harris, the California senator and former attorney general of the state, is positioning herself as a candidate who sees climate change as an all-encompassing issue that should be addressed alongside other societal issues such as racial and economic disparities.
Like other candidates, such as Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren, she seeks to ensure that addressing climate change benefits low-income, minority, and indigenous communities, which is a key theme of the Green New Deal, the liberal plan for revamping the economy to mitigate climate change and curb inequality.
“My plan — a Climate Plan For the People — is about putting people first, justice for communities that have been harmed and accountability for those responsible,” Harris says in her plan. “There are too many families that have been and continue to be harmed as a result of environmental racism and injustice.”
Harris says she would push Congress to pass legislation she introduced in July with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that would require congressional climate and environmental bills to have an equity score, similar to a Congressional Budget Office score.
Nodding to her past work as a prosecutor and attorney general, Harris also vows to use her presidential platform to pressure the oil and gas industry to “pay for the climate damages they are causing.”
“The fossil fuel industry must be held to account for knowingly damaging our environment and endangering public health,” her plan says.
Harris takes a more confrontational approach to fossil fuels policy than some other competitors, such as Biden. She sets a goal of barring all new fossil fuel leases on federal lands, a plank that is not unique, but she also aims for “phasing out” existing leases and opposing new fossil fuel infrastructure projects such as pipelines, a more ambitious target.
Harris does not, however, explicitly call for Congress to ban the technique of fracking for natural gas, as Sanders has promised.
She also does not say whether she supports nuclear power or carbon capture technology, which can remove emissions from a fossil fuel plant and store it underground, as part of her carbon-neutral goals.
Sanders is the only candidate to nakedly oppose carbon capture and nuclear power, preferring an entirely renewable energy approach.
Harris, notably, also does not propose detailed ways to pay for her plan, beyond calling for a vague “climate pollution fee,” a more agreeable-sounding way to describe a tax on carbon emissions.
