Our Climate Restoration Report Card for US Presidential Candidates

By Anna Michel
Feb. 4, 2020 update:

Now with fewer candidates, but still no one over a C+ grade, the report card shows a serious gap in our leaders’ leadership on the Climate Emergency. Read the full press release here and download V3 of our detailed report card here.

 

From the original article published Nov. 14, 2019:

Media coverage

Three months before the Iowa caucuses, a recent CNN poll shows climate change is a top priority for Iowa’s likely Democratic voters.  Build A Movement 2020 today released the Climate Restoration Emergency Action (CREA) Report Card that demonstrates poor performance on essential climate action by all leading candidates — sending a warning to Iowa caucus-goers.

In releasing the report card, Dr. Paul Zeitz, Founder, Build A Movement 2020 said: “Democratic voters in Iowa and around the country should be alarmed by the lack of ambition to address climate change by the Presidential candidates — all are failing to respond adequately to our climate emergency. Climate Restoration Emergency Action (CREA) is affordable and achievable. Let’s join forces with all Americans and vigorously demand action to restore our climate.

Overall grades on CREA report card for 2020 US Presidential Candidates

KEY FINDINGS:

  • Among the leading Democratic candidates, Senator Sanders received the highest overall grade (C+ grade), narrowly outperforming his leading rivals. Former Vice President Biden, Mayor Buttigieg, and Senator Warren all got C grades.
  • Most 2020 candidates agree we face a climate emergency. Alarmingly, however, no leading Democratic candidates have developed ambitious plans to transition to a net-zero carbon economy fast enough to avoid catastrophic climate effects.
  • Among top-tier candidates, only Biden and Buttigieg begin to support effective action to deal with the damage already done, committing to use natural and technological solutions for carbon dioxide removal–both essential to remove the one trillion tons of excess CO2 in the atmosphere.
  • None of the leading candidates have plans to implement Climate Restoration Emergency Action (CREA). Only Andrew Yang has proposed specific climate restoration solutions critical to winning the fight against climate change.

CREA is a bold, whole-of-government and global effort to catalyze a fast transition to a net-zero carbon economy by 2030, massive carbon dioxide removal, and climate restoration by 2050 — thereby ensuring the survival of humanity and our natural world.

The CREA Report Card goes beyond other report cards which focus only on switching from fossil fuels to renewables, and do not evaluate candidates’ commitments on reversing global warming and achieving climate restoration.

Build A Movement 2020 is a newly forming political movement that connects political parties, movements, coalitions, organizations, and individuals to solve the existential threats facing humanity.  This Report Card was co-produced with ClimateChangesEverything.org.

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