Wildfires, rising seas, and rollbacks by the Trump administration that undermine California’s authority to pursue pioneering environmental policies have put climate change top of mind for Democratic voters. Biden and Sanders both have robust climate action agendas. Both vow to immediately reenlist the U.S. in the Paris accord to fight global warming.



Both would scrap all of the Trump rollbacks and set a firm deadline for moving the nation to net zero emissions, the point at which any greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans are balanced by carbon sinks in the environment or technologies that remove carbon from the atmosphere. The differences lie in how far, how fast and how much to spend.

Biden

The former vice president unveiled a $1.7-trillion plan for climate action that belies his brand of “incremental” progressivism. It doesn’t go as far as Sanders’ plan does, but it is hardly incremental.

During the Obama administration, Biden was at the forefront of pushing the world to embrace bolder climate action and the Paris accord on global warming. Faced with a hostile Congress, the Obama White House moved forward with aggressive administration actions aimed at cleaning up power plant emissions and moving the nation’s vehicle fleet toward significantly higher fuel efficiency.

Biden recognizes that the Obama plans were ambitious but also that merely picking up where the last Democratic administration left off will not fully address the urgent warnings of climate scientists. He calls for much further-reaching action and argues that his deep experience in diplomacy makes him uniquely qualified to reposition the U.S. as the world leader in confronting global warming.

Sanders

Sanders prides himself on advancing the most far-reaching and aggressive plans in several major policy areas. Climate is no exception. His plan has a price tag of $16.3 trillion over 15 years, an expansion of government and ambitious targets. He sets an end date for fossil fuels. And the spending he outlines for investment in green technology, natural resource protection and expansion of public land dwarfs that proposed by any other candidate.

The blueprint closely reflects the goals laid out in the Green New Deal as drafted by progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts.


In his plan, Sanders talks about creating 20 million jobs and calls for cuts in military spending and “massive” tax hikes on fossil fuel income. There would be big investments in projects including high-speed rail as well as resiliency programs focused on such things as fighting wildfire and drought.