Issue Position: 100% Clean Energy for America

Issue Position

The science is clear. The world's leading experts have long known that climate change is caused by human beings, it is here, and it is accelerating. We already see its effects -- record floods, devastating wildfires, 100-year storms that happen every year -- costing lives, causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, and disproportionately impacting our most vulnerable communities, including communities of color, children, and low-income communities. This is an emergency, and without rapid and widespread change, we will soon be unable to prevent the worst harms.

The climate crisis will leave no one untouched. But it also represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity: to create millions of good American jobs in clean and renewable energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing; to unleash the best of American innovation and creativity; to rebuild our unions and create real progress and justice for workers; and to directly confront the racial and economic inequality embedded in our fossil fuel economy.

The world must limit warming to below 1.5° C to avoid the most catastrophic outcomes, cutting carbon pollution roughly in half by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions before 2050. As the world's largest historical carbon polluter, the United States has a special responsibility to lead the way, and my administration will work with our international allies to achieve these ambitious carbon reduction goals.

That's why I'm an original supporter of the Green New Deal, which challenges us to go above and beyond -- to launch a ten-year mobilization through 2030 to achieve net-zero domestic greenhouse gas emissions as fast as possible.

It's also why I've woven climate mitigation and resilience throughout my policy proposals, because we won't meet our climate goals with a one-time, one-size-fits-all approach -- we'll need big, structural change, across a range of industries and sectors, and sustained over time.

These ideas are just the beginning. We must do more. Taking bold action to confront the climate crisis is as important -- and as urgent -- as anything else the next president will face. We cannot wait.

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