Change, Can They?

As the US presidential race heats up, none of the Democrat candidates have offered a bold plan for global climate action

- Kapil Subramanian And Tarun Gopalakrishnan

Election Day is more than a year away, but the race among Democrats in the US to take back the White House is heating up. While the field consists of about 20 presidential hopefuls, the ones leading the polls are former vice president Joe Biden and senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris. These four standard-bearers represent a party, which unlike President Donald Trump and his Republican Party, is known for climate-friendly policies. A number of polls suggest that Democrat voters also consider climate change to be a top-tier issue, as important as healthcare. For a majority of world leaders, these presidential candidates are the last hope to make the US, the biggest carbon polluter in history, stay committed to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation. But are they taking it seriously?