Environmental Groups Defend Kamala Harris Amid Silence on Climate Crisis at DNC

Climate was largely left out of last week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago. And yet, many scientists and environmental groups have defended Harris, pointing at her long climate record as proof she will take bold climate action if elected to the White House.

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The Democratic National Convention was largely muted about an issue that has been the centerpiece of Joe Biden presidency: the climate crisis.

The absence of any serious mention of climate change, least of all from presidential candidate Kamala Harris in her closing speech on Thursday, did not go unnoticed. In fact, since Harris ascended the 2024 Democratic ticket, she has been mostly quiet on the issue, offering no hints on her climate plan if she wins November’s election. Amid the silence, one of Harris’s advisors was being quoted as saying at the DNC’s Environmental & Climate Crisis Council that she is committed to “bold action” on climate.

“Kamala Harris’s extremely brief mention of climate change in her Democratic National Convention speech capped a week in which the climate crisis was shockingly absent in Chicago” Collin Rees, Political Director at Oil Change U.S., said in a statement, arguing that the country needs “concrete, specific commitments to match the urgency of the climate crisis.”

But while some echoed Rees’s words, many environmental groups have come forward in recent days to defend Harris, with a coalition of climate groups last week announcing a $55 million advertising campaign in “at least six swing states” in support of her campaign. This marks a drastic change in approach compared to the last presidential campaign, when environmentalists obsessively scrutinized every aspect of Biden’s climate agenda.

“Green activists are taking a do-no-harm approach to Harris’ candidacy,” said Politico’s Zack Colman.

Many environmental groups have openly stated they do not want to sabotage Harris’s campaign as they fight to keep her climate denier counterpart, Republican nominee Donald Trump, out of the White House.

“We have to defeat Donald Trump,” Brett Hartl, chief political strategist with the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, told Politico. “We don’t want to sabotage her campaign for no valid reason.”

Others have hinted they are “not worried” about Harris’s climate agenda, arguing her past decisions holds promise for bold action if she wins the election.

During her time as Vice President, Harris, a former prosecutor and US senator from California, helped promote America’s biggest and boldest climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act. She was the highest-ranking US official at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai last year, where she announced her country’s commitment to double energy efficiency and triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 and pledged an additional $3 billion in funding to the UN Green Climate Fund created in 2010 to support climate action in developing countries.

She also argued in favour of the allocation of $20 billion to support the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) to protect low-income and disadvantaged communities affected by the climate crisis. Harris’s election rival vowed instead to dismantle the federal body which currently holds the most power to tackle the climate crisis, a move that experts argue would have “devastating” consequences.

The Republican nominee has called climate change a hoax, he has vowed to “drill, baby, drill” for more oil and gas and to scrap Biden’s most important climate laws if he wins the November election.

Dr. Leah Stokes, a political scientist and Associate Professor of Environmental Politics at the University of California, praised Harris’s achievements both before and during her time at the White House, saying they are proof the Democratic nominee is a “climate champion.”

Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, boasts the same nickname. Environmental groups repeatedly praised the Democratic vice-presidential nominee’s climate record in recent weeks. Former US Vice President and environmentalist Al Gore, who in 2007 won the Nobel Peace Prize for his climate advocacy, wrote in a post on X that Walz’s climate record makes him a “leader on climate” and a “valuable asset on an issue that demands urgent action if we want to build a better future for our country.”

Meanwhile, some have also hinted that Harris’s silence on climate is a political strategy, arguing that openly talking about her plans to tackle the climate crisis may cost her the support of key swing states like gas-dependent Pennsylvania.

“I think they are worried if [Harris] takes a strong position on climate, even it fits the same position that Biden took, it will make her look too progressive,” Kevin Book, managing director of Clearview Energy Partners, told The New York Times.

“It’s a divisive issue and they need both sides as much as possible to win Pennsylvania.”

Featured image: Wikimedia Commons.