1. It is widely accepted scientific fact that climate change is real and potentially catastrophic. What specific action will you take in the next four years?
Hillary Clinton: Climate change is real, and we have a moral obligation to leave our children and grandchildren a better planet. I believe we can fight climate change and create millions of good-paying jobs at the same time.
Some nation is going to be the clean energy superpower of the 21st century. Its either going to be Germany, China or us, and I want to make sure that its us. And we can do it in a way that means no one gets left out or left behind.
Ive laid out specific plans to modernize our electric grid with enough renewable energy to power every home in America within a decade, including 500 million solar panels by the end of my first term. I want to launch a Clean Energy Challenge to partner with cities, states, and rural communities that are ready to lead on clean energy, clean transportation, and energy efficiency, and help them go further.
Well invest in resilient infrastructure that will protect communities like those in North Carolina, Iowa, and Louisiana that have seen terrible floods just this year. We know that low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately affected by pollution and by extreme weather, and climate change is only going to make that worse. So I will make environmental and climate justice a priority, including eliminating lead as a major public health threat within five years.
Were already less dependent on foreign oil than we have been in decades, but we can go further, reduce oil consumption by a third, and do more to power America with home-grown wind, solar, and advanced biofuels.
And I have a real plan to invest in creating jobs and building stronger economies in coal country. Americas coal communities have kept our lights on and our factories running for generations, and I wont let them be left in the dark.
Finally, I believe the United States needs to continue to lead the global effort to combat climate change. I will fulfill the pledge President Obama made in the Paris Climate Agreement and seek to go further by cutting emissions up to 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. We need to implement the breakthrough we achieved just last week in the Montreal Protocol to phase down super-polluting HFCs and avoid as much as half a degree of warming.
Not only does America need to lead, we need to do more to work with our neighbors. We trade more energy with Canada and Mexico than with the rest of the world combined. Thats why I want to negotiate a North American Climate Compact to cut emissions and accelerate the clean energy transition across the continent.
I wont let the climate deniers stand in the way of progress, or let us give in to the climate defeatists who say this challenge is too big to solve. We can and will take on climate change, build a clean energy economy, and leave our kids and grandkids a safe and healthy worldbecause there is no Planet B.
Donald Trump: Unlike Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump does not believe global warming is the most serious threat we face as a nation. Hillary Clinton supports a climate plan that costs our economy $5 trillion, while Chinathe worlds largest polluteractually continues to increase its emissions for at least 14 more years. Because of policies like hers, our country has lost countless jobs to China, Mexico, and other nations. From an environmental standpoint, it is much better to manufacture products here in the U.S. where we care about the environment, as opposed to countries like China where environmental standards are very low.
