By Timothy Cama
Vice President Kamala Harris is going big in her efforts to sell the administration’s climate change and environmental agenda, with a $1 trillion price tag.
In a series of recent appearances, Harris has used the figure to boast about her and President Joe Biden’s accomplishments, usually without going into the math that got her there.
It’s not the $2 trillion climate and social spending plan Biden promised in his 2020 campaign for office, which fell prey to legislative realties like a closely divided Senate.
But the number, which adds together a handful of tangentially related legislative victories, could help get some voters excited about voting to reelect Biden and Harris in a year when many of the administration’s supporters — particularly young people, who are more likely to care about climate change — are showing signs they might not show up to the polls.
Harris quoted the 13-figure total twice in speeches at the COP28 climate conference in December in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
“Two years ago, President Joe Biden stood onstage at COP26 and made a declaration of ambition: The United States of America will once again be a global leader in the fight against the climate crisis,” she said.
“Since then, the United States has turned ambition into action. President Biden and I made the largest climate investment in the history of our country and, some have said, the world: roughly $1 trillion over the next 10 years.”
Harris repeated it later that day, saying she and Biden “invested roughly $1 trillion over the next 10 years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, boost climate resilience and support adaptation, and build a clean energy economy.”
