Warren’s plan best, Biden’s worst among leading Democratic candidates

Combined the Democratic candidates have a good climate action plan, but none are perfect

With Buttigieg surging, and deep dives into the front runners’ (and Yang’s) plans completed, it’s time for the overview comparison. Which Democratic candidate’s climate action plan is currently best, will deal with climate change well and also be salable to the American electorate in 2020?

Chart by author

We’ll cut this a few different ways. The first is a straight-up numerical points scoring assessment across the six reviewed candidates (easier to keep it light now that Inslee isn’t in the running). Yang is in because he’s a tech entrepreneur with interestingly divergent ideas, and a lot of techno-optimists like him.

Summaries of the climate action plans

Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris’ plan is by far the best of the six I’ve reviewed. Part of the reason for that is she references existing draft legislation from multiple Democratic leaders, including Warren’s SEC climate risk piece as mechanisms for achieving her goals. Another part is that she’s clearest about what levers she would pull when, with only Warren being even close to as crisp as her.