• Global temperatures will be higher after four years whether Harris or Trump wins; Greens urge enactment of the Green New Deal and a Day One presidential climate-emergency declaration

WASHINGTON, DC — The Green Party said today that while Donald Trump remains a climate denier willing to sell the White House to the fossil-fuel industry, Kamala Harris’s climate agenda would also lock in climate collapse. 

For immediate release
Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Contacts:
Gloria Mattera, Green Party Media Committee Coordinator, 202-804-2758, [email protected]
Scott McLarty, Green Party Media Director, 202-878-2112, [email protected]

"Trump would burn the planet faster, but Democrats are still leading us to climate chaos. Too many climate activist organizations and groups like MoveOn continue to promote voting for Democrats despite their weak record and platforms, hoping they'll get better post-election. But Dem leaders constantly find excuses to appease oil companies and they fail to deliver even on their weak promises," said Rachel Braaten, Green candidate for Mayor of Crystal, Minnesota.

"The Green Party remains the only national party committed to the concerted radical action needed to prevent a global climate catastrophe and to provide a decent future for Americans and the rest of humanity," said Braaten.

The Green Party since 2010 has called for an Ecosocialist Green New Deal  in the US. The Green New Deal combines an immediate halt to new fossil fuels and transition to 100% renewable energy within a decade with a robust Economic Bill of Rights which includes a living wage job and income for all, single-payer Expanded and Improved Medicare for All, and affordable housing.

2024 Green presidential nominee Jill Stein introduced the Green New Deal on the national stage during her 2012 presidential campaign.

What a Harris presidency's climate policies will look like

• Kamala Harris boasted during the September 10 debate that the Biden-Harris administration has facilitated "the largest increase in domestic oil production in history," which suggests she will continue to promote an increase as president.
  
  
• A report from the United Nations Environment Programme, "Emissions Gap Report 2024: No more hot air… please!" warns that governments are falling far short of the emission cuts embraced in the Paris Climate accords. Global warming last year already exceeded the target level of 1.5 degrees Celsius, with extreme weather rampaging across the US and the planet. The UN predicts that global warming will soar to 3-degree C warming this century, far beyond safe limits.

A Harris White House will not meet the Paris goals or fulfill the previous commitment of the Biden-Harris administration to reduce US emissions by 50% by 2030, which is now only six years away. Global temperatures will be higher after four years whether Harris or Trump wins on November 5.

• While Harris touts casting the deciding vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, the bill included much less funding for renewable energy than initially proposed and has so many handouts for false climate solutions that the Wall Street Journal reported that oil and gas companies are lobbying Trump to continue it. Greens noted that renewable energy will not slow the advance of climate chaos unless fossil-fuel consumption is drastically reduced.
  
  
• Harris has reversed her opposition to fracking gas and dropped her prior support for the Democrats' far weaker version of a Green New Deal, with its 30-year timeline. While Greens would slash the military budget 50 to 75 percent to help pay for a Green New Deal, Harris is committed to funding increases to maintain the most lethal and climate-damaging force on the planet.

“We need a president who on Day One will declare a climate emergency and take needed executive action," said Randy Toler, co-chair of the Green Party of Florida. Toler's family in Tampa Bay was devastated by two hurricanes in 13 days.

"We need a president who understands that ending capitalism and its focus on growth and private profit is part of the climate solution — something expressed by both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Pope Francis. We need to make the polluters pay, including a robust carbon fee and dividend. We need to say no to fossil fuels and the corporate hucksters peddling false climate solutions like nuclear and carbon capture and sequestration," said Toler.

One of the many Green Party candidates running for local office on the climate issue is Eddie Espinoza, candidate for Texas Railroad Commissioner, the public official who regulates the state's oil and gas industry.

"The only climate solution is to transition away from fossil fuels to clean renewables like wind, solar, and utility-scale batteries. I call for no fracking, no new fossil fuel projects, and a phase out of current fossil fuel energy plants. The Railroad Commission should ban carbon capture schemes, because carbon capture is not a real climate solution," said Espinoza.

See also:

• GreenStream: Interviews with Green Women Candidates running in 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z9yLnTBEDY

• Acceptance speeches by nominees Jill Stein and Butch Ware, videos of state and local Green candidates, and more at the 2024 Green Convention
https://www.gp.org/videos_steins_acceptance_speech

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
202-804-2758