While the topic has been largely absent from Republican debates, climate change again got some air time Sunday evening during the Democratic debate in Flint, Michigan. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who holds commanding lead in Michigan according to recent polls, touted her record working on climate issues during her time with the state department and her aggressive energy and climate plan.
“What I am looking at is how we make the transition from where we are today to where are today to where we must be. I worked with President Obama during the four years I was secretary of state to begin to put pressure on China and India and other countries to join with us to have a global agreement which we finally got in Paris.”
Clinton, while she was no longer serving with the State Department in December 2015 when the Paris Agreement was adopted, did play a role in the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen. The COP15 negotiations are well known for falling into chaos in their final days, and Clinton often recalls rushing around the convention grounds searching for the Chinese delegation in a last ditch effort to secure an agreement.
Under Clinton’s climate plan, the presidential hopeful says she will lead the country to the installation of more than half a billion solar panels throughout the nation by 2020 and an increased renewable generation to 33 percent of total national energy generation by 2027. “I think I have the most comprehensive plan to combat climate change. It sets some very big goals, a half billion more solar panels deployed by the end of my first term if I’m so fortunate to be president. And enough clean energy to power every home by the end of my second term,” Clinton said during the debate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was less than impressed with Clinton’s climate promise, questioning the sincerity of her pledge. Sanders took shots at Clinton, suggesting that through her Super PAC, the candidate could accept donations from the fossil fuel industry. “We have a corrupt campaign finance system, and instead of standing up to that finance system, Secretary Clinton has super [a] PAC, which is raising huge amounts … of money from Wall Street and from the fossil fuel industry,” Sanders said, going on to note, pointedly, “I don’t take money from the fossil fuel industry.”
