How Will Hillary Clinton Tackle Climate Change?

The American Presidential debate is pretty polar. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are on the opposite side of most arguments, and climate change is no different. While Trump is busy denying its existence, Clinton is thinking of ways to tackle the problem. How? Let’s take a look at some of her ideas.

Obama’s legacy

Climate change is big on the agenda. It’s more prominent than ever before, partly due to Barack Obama’s heightened awareness of it, but also because its effects are becoming more and more prevalent. Hillary Clinton has highlighted Trump’s denial of the process, stating “we can’t risk putting a climate denier in the White House.” And now she’s starting to outline her proposals to challenge it.

John Podesta, the chair of Clinton’s campaign, posted a list of her policies on Twitter:

• Generate enough renewable energy to power every home in America
• Half a billion solar panels installed by the end of her first terms
• Implement the Clean Power Plan
• Protect and extend Obama’s fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30% in 2025
• Reduce US oil consumption by a third
• Cut tax subsidies for oil and gas companies
• Invest in clean energy infrastructure, innovation, manufacturing and jobs
• Implement the Paris Climate Agreement

Raising awareness

To highlight the effects, Clinton has drawn attention to the destruction caused by hurricane Matthew. It took several lives in Florida and over a thousand in Haiti. While there isn’t anything that can stop hurricanes in their tracks, they are more frequent and more severe as a result of climate change. Flooding is another consequence, and Clinton highlights “one in eight homes in Florida could be underwater by the end of the century.”

The technology used to reduce emissions and slow climate change will reduce the severity of both. Considering Obama’s comments – and a growing base of scientific evidence – that climate change is a threat to national security, it would certainly be in America’s interest to have a plan in place.

First things first

The first step in combatting climate change is to monitor its effects. The more we know about flooding, hurricanes and global warming, the better equipped we are to deal with them. ‘Making Waves’ looks at how the Collaborative Centre for Sustainable Use of the Seas is leading research into climate change and the impact of storm surges, with advances monitoring and sensor technologies.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons