Biden announces climate change plan, praises Green New Deal as a 'crucial framework'

Former Vice President Joe Biden has unveiled his plan to combat climate change, promising to go "well beyond" the Obama administration.

Biden's proposal unveiled on Tuesday calls for the United States to achieve net-zero emissions and a 100 percent clean energy economy "no later than 2050." The Green New Deal, which Biden praises in his announcement as a "crucial framework," calls for net-zero emissions by 2030, Bloomberg notes. Biden will urge Congress to pass a law that "establishes an enforcement mechanism that includes milestone targets" within his first year in office.

The proposal calls for a $1.7 trillion federal investment in clean energy and environmental justice over 10 years, which the campaign says would be paid for through tax code changes, such as reversing President Trump's tax cuts for corporations. It also calls for additional investments from the private sector and from state and local governments to bring the total to more than $5 trillion.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Biden additionally says that after rejoining the Paris climate accord, he will push to "dramatically accelerate our worldwide effort" to combat climate change.

The former vice president's announcement specifically says he will go "well beyond" the Obama administration's platform and sign a series of executive orders on his first day. The Associated Press notes that Biden's plan is similar to the one proposed by former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, while its call for a $1.7 trillion federal investment is not as ambitious as Washington Gov. Jay Inslee's proposal for $3 trillion in federal spending over 10 years.

Prior to this announcement, Biden had received criticism from Democrats following a report that he would aim for "middle ground" in his plan, which the campaign denied. The Washington Post notes that Biden's plan "leaves unsaid what exactly his enforcement mechanism would look like," while Bloomberg writes that seeing as the proposal's timeline for cutting emissions is not as ambitious as the Green New Deal, it's "unlikely to mute all of his critics."