Special Report on the Climate Crisis in the 2020 Primary

(The Climate Change Project) ... While the need to act on climate has never been more clear, the good news is that candidates are responding to urgent need and public desire for serious action. They are participating in historic climate town halls and forums, releasing ambitious and comprehensive climate plans, and making climate a priority in their campaigns.

This report provides a snapshot of how candidates are prioritizing climate action by:

Candidates Take Climate Seriously with Comprehensive Plans

The leading candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination—including 11 of the 12 candidates participating in the October debate—have released comprehensive climate plans. Across the board, these candidates have committed to achieve 100 percent clean energy and net-zero climate pollution economy-wide no later than 2050, to meet clean energy targets dictated by science, to re-join and strengthen the Paris Climate Agreement, and more.

To varying degrees, these candidates have plans that pursue just, equitable economic transitions, which support good-paying new jobs in clean energy and prioritize frontline communities and communities of color, who bear greater burdens of pollution and climate impacts.

Governor Jay Inslee, prior to ending his presidential campaign, set the gold standard with 218 pages of comprehensive climate policies that made it clear an equitable and just solution to the climate crisis is his top priority, and candidates are incorporating elements from his plans.

Among candidates’ many notable policy proposals, here are some unique approaches:

The historic nature of so many presidential candidates releasing robust and specific climate policies is encouraging. What’s more, candidates are strengthening their plans with additional climate proposals throughout the primary, particularly as they meet with and learn from people working in agriculture, clean energy, and other industries affected by climate change as well as frontline communities and people of color who are leading fights against polluters in their own backyards.

Climate Analysis of Candidate Speeches and Social Media

By The Numbers: Climate On the Stump

For this analysis, we reviewed the stump speeches of the 12 candidates who qualified for the October debate from three major events where all candidates were given equal stage time. These major events included the Iowa Democratic Party Hall of Fame event in Cedar Rapids on June 9, 2019, the South Carolina Democratic Party convention in Columbia on June 22, 2019, and the New Hampshire Democratic Party convention on September 7, 2019.

After analyzing 31 candidate stump speeches, trends emerged. Almost three quarters of the stump speeches (23 out of 31) included some mention of climate change, but many of those mentions came only briefly. Moreover, only 13 out of 31 speeches discussed specific climate solutions.

By The Numbers: Climate On Social Media

Since Twitter has become a primary way in which candidates communicate with voters and the public, we also analyzed the number of times each of the 12 candidates who qualified for the October debate tweeted about climate issues from the date they formally entered the presidential race through October 10. Our analysis was based on 25 distinct search terms:

Based on our review, Sanders and Warren have tweeted about climate issues more than any of the other candidates, though it is important to note that Steyer has tweeted about the issue a lot in the short time he has been in the race. It is also worth acknowledging that these counts pale in comparison to Inslee’s hundreds of climate tweets when he was in the race. READ MORE