Biden appeals to youth with climate message, but results uncertain
President Joe Biden emphasizes his climate accomplishments on Earth Day, amid criticism from younger liberal Democrats over his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Although praised by some for climate initiatives like the Inflation Reduction Act, concerns arise over unmet promises like the emission reduction target. The effectiveness of Biden’s climate agenda remains debated among various demographic groups.
President Joe Biden is underscoring his climate record on Earth Day as younger, more liberal Democrats sour on him amid the Israel–Hamas war.
But although Biden’s public events continue to be interrupted by some climate activists, including his New York fundraiser with former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, what was once a top priority for the demographic is being overshadowed by the Middle East and the economy.
Democrats, such as former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) aide Christopher Hahn, have praised Biden’s climate record, which includes the Inflation Reduction Act’s $370 billion climate investment, his commitment to reducing carbon emissions to 40% below 2005 levels, and his signature policy of encouraging the adoption of electric vehicles.
“Biden is making sure that America leads the world on the technologies that will power the future,” Hahn told the Washington Examiner. “His goals are ambitious, but clearly the last three years has seen a growing demand for clean vehicles, and all indications is that this will continue.”
At the same time, climate activists remember the $2 trillion spending promise Biden made during his 2020 campaign and his original 50%-52% emissions pledge, reminding him that scientists recommend cutting emissions by 70%-100%.
“As young people, we’re often called unrealistic or naive for demanding the world as it should be rather than accepting the world as it is,” a group of young leaders, including now-Rep. Max Frost (D-FL), wrote to the White House in 2022 after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) agreed to the Inflation Reduction Act. “This must only be the beginning. Your work is not finished. We will keep demanding the world as it should be, and we need you, our elected representatives who we put into office and delivered Democratic majorities for, to join us in fighting for and delivering that world.”
Biden’s Earth Day announcements Monday alongside the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in leafy Prince William Forest Park, Virginia, included $7 billion in Environmental Protection Agency Solar for All program grants for more than 900,000 residential projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities, in addition to launching his American Climate Corps website to advertise the new national service program’s more than 20,000 green jobs, an initiative that has pleased many activists.
“I learned a long time ago to listen to that lady,” Biden told the crowd of Ocasio-Cortez, who is more popular than him with younger people.
“Young Americans know that the climate crisis is the existential threat of our time,” he added afterward on social media, attaching a photo of him with Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) in his trademark aviator sunglasses to the post. “They deserve leaders who believe them. We’re not going to let them down.”
Young Americans know that the climate crisis is the existential threat of our time.
They deserve leaders who believe them.
We’re not going to let them down. pic.twitter.com/bBSUYgiuEC
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 22, 2024
Biden’s Earth Day announcements come after last week’s news that he is protecting more than 13 million acres in the Western Arctic, Alaska, preventing mining development on Native American land, as well as that he is asking U.S Trade Representative Katherine Tai to consider tripling steel and aluminum import tariffs on China and proposing to forgive $7.4 billion in federal student debt for 277,000 more borrowers.
The White House last week downplayed speculation the announcements are politically motivated, six months before a general election in which former President Donald Trump has a national average polling advantage of less than a percentage point over Biden, 44.5% to 44.2%, at least according to RealClearPolitics.
“I would read this as what the president promised in 2020, what the president said when he walked into this administration,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters last week. “I would see this as a commitment that he has made, not just to young people but to Americans, as our role, as the United States.”
Biden’s average job approval is net negative 16 points, 40% approval-56% disapproval, according to RealClearPolitics. But in last week’s Economist-YouGov poll, 32% of respondents aged 18-29 approved of Biden and 61% disapproved. Simultaneously, the April poll found that the demographic was more preoccupied with inflation and prices (21%), healthcare (12%), and jobs and the economy (10%). Only 8% mentioned climate and the environment as their No. 1 concern. Meanwhile, although 26% of the April poll’s respondents approved of Biden’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war, only 19% of younger people did.
While Biden’s climate record may not help him as much as he was hoping with traditionally Democratic-supporting demographics, such as young people, it could hinder him with others, including union members. For example, the leadership of the United Auto Workers‘s union endorsed Biden in January, but many of its rank-and-file are for Trump, according to conversations with the Washington Examiner.
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“Joe Biden should be worried about the political climate that has him losing poll after poll in battleground states across the country,” Republican National Committee spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the Washington Examiner. “If Biden cared about the environment, he would stop lighting money on fire via his flailing campaign and solve the economic, border, and crime crises he created.”
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack were also in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Monday for Earth Day announcements.
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