What are Kamala Harris's environmental and climate policies?
As the climate crisis escalates, here’s what you need to know about US election candidate Kamala Harris’s environmental policies.
As US election day approaches, US citizens are deciding whether they will cast their vote for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.
As the candidates hit the campaign trail to make their final pitches on everything from abortion to election fraud and oil and gas production, the issue of climate change is increasingly on the agenda.
According to a Gallup poll conducted in September, 50% of voters see the issue of climate change as extremely important or very important, with a further 24% viewing it as somewhat important.
And with the climate crisis escalating at a rapid pace, Yahoo News breaks down everything you need to know about the key climate policies Harris is running on.
Where does Harris sit?
Throughout her career, Harris has been a vocal supporter of progressive environmental policy.
Her work protecting the environment dates back to her time as California's attorney general, when she brought lawsuits against corporations that were accused of environmental negligence like oil spills and methane leaks.
In her role as Biden's vice president, she cast the deciding vote that ratified the Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark law bringing in the largest spend on the environment in US history, including decarbonisation measures.
While she pledged to protect the “freedom to breathe clean air, and drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis” during her democratic nomination speech, she has released very few details on her environmental approach, with some criticising her lack of policy.
“It’s really interesting that we still don’t know where Harris sits,” Andy Garraway, the former climate advisor to former energy secretary Alok Sharma, told Yahoo News.
“She had very strong pro-climate and climate equity principles when she was in the US senate. Those have disappeared somewhat or to a large extent,” he added.
However, Dr Jared Finnegan, the director of University College London’s Climate Change Policy and Politics MSc, also noted that Harris is “a bit shy when it comes to the climate” as the issue is “very polarising”.
“I don't think she wants to say too much about it. It's an extremely divisive issue in the US”, he said.
Garraway also said Harris’s position may well be strategic.
“Is her position different now, or has she just accepted the political reality?” he said.
Forward on fracking
Harris has been keen to impress that she has no plans to ban fracking, which has come as something of a surprise to those hoping for a stronger stance on the controversial measure.
The oil extraction technique may be banned in the UK, but it is still a thriving industry in the US.
According to the vice president, she has held this view since she joined the Biden administration in 2020 — a big shift from her previous stance.
She went as far as to tell journalists earlier this month that she in fact "cast the tie-breaking vote to open up more fracking leases”.
“I will not ban fracking,” she insisted in an interview with US news channel KDKA-TV.
Fracking is a highly controversial practice that has been blamed for releasing tons of methane, a greenhouse gas which destroys the ozone layer, into the air.
Added to this, poor regulation means it runs the risk of causing air pollution, with chemicals also known to leak into water supplies.
Garraway believes Harris has made more lenient statements on fracking in a bid to win over voters in key swing state Pennsylvania, often dubbed the keystone state.
“The general discourse in Pennsylvania is very pro-fracking simply because of the number of jobs it's brought, particularly to rural areas where those jobs didn't exist previously,” Garraway explained.
“Politics is compromise. Both Biden and Harris have compromised on the principle of fracking, but also drilling."
While the UK may have banned fracking, it still relies on supplies from the US to generate energy.
“Post-Ukraine, the UK never really got that much gas from Russia, but continental Europe did. They moved away from that, but where did they go? To the US, to liquefied natural gas," Garraway said.
"We can't just judge the US for fracking whilst we ban it here, because we're also consuming fracked gas from the US.”
The UK and the US join forces
While Harris's environmental policies may have been thin on the ground, what she has indicated in her campaign literature does suggest that she could take a similar approach to that of the UK when it comes to cutting red tape to expand green energy.
Allie Renison, a former policy adviser to the business and trade secretary, said she has noticed "some interesting similarities" between what Harris wants and what newly elected prime minister Sir Keir Starmer is doing.
"Take a look at Starmer and Miliband. Within a week of being in office, they unblocked quite a few big solar and wind farm projects that have been stuck in the queue for years to go ahead," Renison said.
"Harris has also talked about where the federal government is involved in renewable energy, green charges and energy projects. She also wants to try and simplify the planning system, which is called the leasing system in the US.
"That means anything where the federal government's involved in big energy projects, she will strip away some of the red tape and the permitting and the leasing process," she added.
Taking into account their similar approach and the power of the "special relationship" between the UK and the US — a diplomatic allegiance spanning more than 80 years — Harris may also turn to the UK to burnish her environmental credentials.
In turn, Starmer's government may have more impetus to accelerate its pursuit of net zero, and investment in clean energy on both a domestic and international stage.
"If it were a Harris presidency, I think it's additional cover to go further and faster for Labour, if they are so minded to – because they'll have someone in the White House who shares their views,” Garraway said.
Building on Biden
Harris may have covered her back on the campaign trail by avoiding the specifics of environmental policy, but she has not shied away from championing her and Biden's environmental legacy.
With the Democrat in charge, the US will continue with its commitments on an international stage, like remaining in the Paris Agreement.
The internationally binding treaty, which includes 192 countries, means that nations are committed to ensuring that they will do what it takes to keep the global temperature no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels.
The experts believe that when it comes to Harris, her record may speak for itself — indicating that there will be significantly more specifics to come.
“There is a potential that if she becomes president she goes back to those more staunch pro-climate policies," Garraway said.
"If you look at her senatorial record in the California senate, she sponsored and supported an awful lot of climate bills, including on climate equity and climate finance.
As the world moves forward and tries to get to grips with the climate crisis, it is those areas that Garraway feels are going to be "really important".
"In the coming years, this is vital in an international climate negotiation and climate space," he said.
“We might get a more ambitious Harris if and when she does win the White House. That is going to be the thing I'm following the most closely," he added.