Will Donald Trump or Joe Biden be better for the environment?

Climate change poses an existential threat to the world. The 2020 United States Presidential candidates are in a position to make or break the future of this planet. Each candidate takes a starkly different stance on the environment and its intersection with the economy, trade, and scientific fact.

Donald Trump will be better for the environment

President Donald J. Trump has a strong environmental record and is pursuing effective policies to advance environmental protection while promoting economic growth.

Trump will reduce marine debris

The President supported and signed the Save Our Seas Act.

Trump will clean up hazardous sites

Trump has a record of protecting hazardous waste sites.

Trump will provide clean-up grants to communities

Trump has provided communities with Brownfield grants to help them clean up hazardous waste.

Trump will protect air quality

Trump has improved air quality EPA standards.

Trump will prioritize restoration projects

Donald Trump has a record of prioritizing land restoration projects during his first term in office.

Trump will protect public lands

Trump designated new wilderness areas during his first term.

Trump will expand hunting and fishing access

Trump has expanded hunting and fishing access on public lands during his first term.

Trump will improve forest management

Trump has worked with Federal and State officials to prevent forest fires.

Joe Biden will be better for the environment

Biden believes that (1) the United States urgently needs to embrace greater ambition on an epic scale to meet the scope of the environmental challenge, and (2) our environment and our economy are completely and totally connected.

Biden will move the U.S. to zero emissions and a clean energy economy.

Biden will 1) establish an enforcement mechanism to achieve the 2050 goal, 2) make a historic investment in energy and climate research and innovation, 3) incentivize the rapid deployment of clean energy innovations across the economy.

Biden will invest in clean and resilient infrastructure.

Biden will commit that every infrastructure investment that receives federal funding should reduce climate pollution, as much as possible. Climate impacts are regional, and the solutions will be too.

Biden will take an international approach to the climate crisis.

Biden will use every tool of American foreign policy to push the rest of the world to raise their ambitions alongside the United States.

Biden will hold polluters accountable to protect minority communities.

Biden will reinstate federal protections, rolled back by the Trump Administration, that were designed to protect communities. He will make it a priority for all agencies to engage in community-driven approaches to develop solutions for environmental injustices affecting communities of color, low-income, and indigenous communities.

Biden will support the coal miners and their communities.

Biden will commit our country to fulfilling our obligation to all workers impacted by the energy transition, like coal miners and power plant workers and their communities.

Neither candidate will do enough for the environment

Neither candidate does enough to treat the climate crisis as the emergency that it is.

Neither candidate takes climate change seriously enough.

Neither candidate supports a Green New Deal.

Both candidates take money from energy executives.

Candidates need to be unbiased by donations from oil, gas, or coal companies.

Neither candidate denounces nuclear power reactors.

Nuclear waste disposal is a long-term threat to environmental safety.

Neither candidate has a 100% green transportation policy plan.

To support the environment, candidates must disinvest from the auto industry and invest in public transport.

Neither candidate supports zero waste.

The U.S. should follow clean production and principles of zero waste.
Explore this question in a whole new way.
This page was last edited on Monday, 2 Nov 2020 at 16:12 UTC