Climate policy and crime are Kamala Harris’ two major profile issues. In previous statements, Kamala Harris has said that she wants to make the climate crisis a priority national security issue.
A number of her positions on the climate issue have now come into the spotlight since it is clear that she appears to be the Democrats’ presidential candidate. She comes from the country’s most environmentally progressive state and likes to emphasize her successes as a California state attorney. Among others, she fined car company Volkswagen for cheating on its emissions statistics, but she is criticized for exaggerating her victories against the oil industry.
US election 2024
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There are many indications that with Kamala Harris as president, the United States would have a more radical climate policy than with Joe Biden. She recently said that she admires climate activists, that they “show the way”.
If she meets Donald Trump in the autumn presidential election, two extremes will be pitted against each other.
Concerns about climate change
Donald Trump has recently said that global warming is benign, falsely claimed that the climate crisis is a hoax, he again wants to leave the Paris Agreement and scrap Joe Biden’s climate reform, IRA. In JD Vance, he also got a vice presidential candidate who swung around on the climate issue and who began to question the conclusions of climate scientists.
According to the opinion institutes, neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris can afford to ignore the climate issue. Concern about climate change is growing in the United States. This summer, heat waves have replaced each other.
Young voters are most concerned.
Does Harris stick to the climate agenda?
Both young Republican and Democratic voters express dissatisfaction with Trump and Biden’s climate promises. “Candidates who ignore it risk losing their voter base,” says Danielle Butcher France, director of ACC, the conservative climate coalition.
Despite that, Kamala Harris did not mention the climate during her first campaign meeting on Tuesday evening Swedish time. And the question of whether she dares to stick to her climate agenda now that she is about to start a record-short campaign before the autumn elections. The answer lies in what her campaign strategists now judge that voters want to hear.