Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke and Amy Klobuchar to also miss the MSNBC event timed to align with global climate strikes

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Former vice-president Joe Biden and the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, will miss an MSNBC forum on the climate crisis to be held in Washington later this week.

The livestreamed event at Georgetown University, which will include hourlong interviews with presidential contenders on Thursday and Friday, is aimed at students and timed to align with global climate strikes inspired by young people.

The California senator Kamala Harris, former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke and the Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar will also miss the event.

The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders will be interviewed on Thursday. One Republican challenger to Donald Trump, former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, will also appear.

Organizers said most candidates who declined cited scheduling conflicts in the early voting state of Iowa, including for an LGBTQ forum in Cedar Rapids on Friday.

Warren had prior commitments for that forum and a town hall, a spokeswoman said, adding that the senator plans to talk about the climate crisis at an Iowa campaign stop.

None of the other campaigns responded to requests for comment.

The MSNBC event is the second climate-focused discussion with presidential candidates this month, following a seven-hour CNN town hall. It will not be aired on the network in full, a factor which may have contributed to candidates declining.

One person familiar with the MSNBC event said it seemed candidates felt they had “checked the box on climate” by appearing at the CNN event.

The Democratic National Committee has refused to allow an official climate crisis debate. The debate in Houston last week included just one question on climate.

Stephen O’Hanlon, a spokesman for the Sunrise Movement, said the youth-led activist group understands why some candidates could not attend the MSNBC event.

“The CNN Climate Crisis Town Hall forced all the candidates to put forward serious plans to tackle the climate crisis and answer questions from voters on them,” O’Hanlon said. “That was historic.”

But Sierra Club’s national policy director, Ariel Hayes, said: “If tackling the climate crisis is truly the priority for these candidates that it needs to be, they should be taking advantage of this opportunity to share their vision with the world.”

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, will appear on MSNBC and in Iowa. He will be interviewed at the climate forum on Friday morning before appearing at the LGBTQ forum that evening.

Democrats running for president have laid out multifaceted plans for slashing the 15% of heat-trapping pollution the US contributes to the atmosphere, as scientists warn time is running short and Trump guts efforts to help.

Miro Korenha, a co-founder of the newsletter Our Daily Planet and a planner of the MSNBC event, said she was disappointed candidates would miss an opportunity to talk with students. Polls show young Americans are more engaged on global warming than older adults.

The MSNBC anchors Chris Hayes and Ali Velshi will question the candidates on how they would act to drastically reduce emissions from cars, power plants, industry and agriculture.

Korenha said the CNN town hall was criticized for focusing on narrow questions about how candidates would change how Americans live, “from plastics … to cheeseburgers”.

“We really hope to bring a lot of substance to this,” she said.