Biden’s Climate Plan Places Emphasis on Job Creation

US presidential candidate Joe Biden, last week revealed his climate plans if elected president in November 2020.

 The democratic candidate believes that climate change goes beyond greenhouse and is strongly linked to employment.

“When I think about climate change what comes to my mind is jobs, but when Donald Trump thinks of climate change, all he musters are a hoax,” says Biden in a speech aimed at unveiling his plan.

According to the democratic candidate, the climate change proposal is aimed at creating over 1 million jobs in the auto sector and I million positions aimed at making homes energy efficient and weather resilient.

Joe Biden is also a sending a signal of commitment in addressing issues of climate change through policies that are targeted at racial and economic inequality.

The presidential candidate is taking a shift from discussing climate change as a scientific problem but a practical one with imminent solutions.

The climate plan includes a 100% carbon-free electrical grid by 2035, which would be of great benefit to communities that have been adversely impacted by pollution and climate change.

In addition, the plan is also beneficial to African-American communities experiencing a high rate of pollution-related health problems like lead poising, asthma and the rising sea levels.

Biden isn’t the first presidential candidate to link climate and job. Recall that in 2008, Barack Obama pledged to create 5 million green-collar jobs in the next decade.

However, one of the significant critiques of Joe Biden climate plan who feels that it is technocratic and of no relevance to the public Peggy Shered, the executive director of We Act, a Harlem-based non-profit environmental justice advocacy group, said: “Biden approach to climate change narrows the question on what an average person can achieve by reduction of carbon.”

In an editorial, written to support Biden’s climate change plan, Michael R. Bloomberg, founder and majority shareholder of Bloomberg News parent company Bloomberg LP, believes that by making emphasis on policies that address economic and racial equity, Biden’s approach goes beyond market-driven solutions. Rather, it is business-oriented with priorities that are aimed at creating jobs for the younger population.

Before now, Biden has always been a great choice for Black voters because he has served under the first African-American president.

An analysis made by nonpartisan Democracy Fund and UCLA’s Nationscape project which was published in the Washington Post showed that 91% of Black voters aged 65 and above and 68% of Black voters aged 18 to 29 planned to vote for Biden. 

Furthermore, Spokesperson of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee believes that Biden climate plan needs to speak more to the younger generation. This is aimed at helping them understand that a clean energy future is possible with good union jobs and a real commitment to racial justice.

Sean McElwee, the co-founder of Data for Progress, also revealed that the plans also address US citizens who are worried about the phasing out of fossil fuels which make result to economic devastation. According to him “That is a pretty dramatic shift,” he says. “This is a way to talk about climate change to blue-collar voters so that it doesn’t seem like a liberal academic exercise to take away their jobs.”

In support of this, Jake Sullivan, a senior policy advisor to Biden, said “the climate plan was created to unite diverse constituencies that do not agree. This includes the AFLCIO, United Auto Workers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the League of Conservation Voters and Sierra Club and other environmental groups.