WASHINGTON — Environmental experts are warning American voters that whoever occupies the White House could chart the course forward or set the world back at a critical moment in the climate crisis.

“The U.S. election will be one of the most important moments in determining the entire world’s ability to limit warming,” said Caroline Brouillette, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada.

The race for the White House is unfolding as American communities reel from the devastating effects of two hurricanes that many experts say have been made worse by climate change.

The United Nations has declared climate change the greatest crisis facing humanity today, and Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have very different plans for how their administration will react, or even if she will react to it.

Observers say the vice president’s record presents a leader who takes the issue seriously. She is expected to follow the path set by the Biden administration, which passed historic legislation to support and grow the clean energy economy.

On the other hand, experts warn, the first Trump administration dealt a devastating blow to environmental regulations and climate policy. If he wins, they say, Trump will go even further.

“This time it would be even worse,” said Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen Action, a climate change advocacy group.

The first Trump administration saw sweeping attempts to roll back more than 100 environmental protections. The Republican president also withdrew from the Paris Agreement, an international treaty aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.

During Trump’s term, the Environmental Protection Agency was downsized and the words “climate change” were removed from its website.

“It was a punch in the gut,” said Raul Garcia of Earthjustice Action.

“It has removed long-standing protections that have been relied upon since the 1970s…to keep our environment as healthy as possible. Regulation after regulation, we have seen in a very ad hoc, convoluted and often illegal manner, get rid of these requirements.”

Trump is unlikely to have any plans to combat global warming this time around. In the wake of the devastating Hurricane Helene, he called climate change “one of the biggest scams of all time.”

The Republican 2024 agenda proclaims “DRILL, BABY, DRILL” and asserts that America will become “energy independent, and even dominant again.” There is no mention of climate change.

Trump has indicated he would tackle the Inflation Reduction Act, landmark environmental economics legislation, and end incentives for the electric vehicle market.

Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, a blueprint for a rightward shift in the U.S. government, but environmental experts suspect that will be the path he follows.

The document calls for “unlocking all of America’s energy resources” by eliminating federal restrictions on fossil fuel drilling on public lands and easing environmental permitting restrictions.

He proposes closing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and requiring the National Weather Service to exclusively sell weather data to private forecasters.

“As scary as it is, I think what we saw under the Trump 1.0 administration was just a test when it comes to rolling back climate action,” Brouillette said.

This plan would constitute a massive attack on climate progress, Moffitt added.

“(It) would set us back at a time when we can least afford it,” Moffitt said, referring to an expert report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that warned the world needed to take immediate action to reduce greenhouse gases to limit global emissions. warming to 1.5°C.

“We are halfway through this decisive decade where scientists say we must act, lower the emissions curve if we hope to have any chance of avoiding the worst of the worst of the climate crisis.”

When President Joe Biden took office, he reversed Trump’s policies, strengthened environmental regulations and rejoined the Paris Agreement.

The Inflation Reduction Act represents the largest infusion of public funds into climate and clean energy initiatives. Harris provided the deciding Senate vote to pass the bill.

The vice president has called climate change an existential threat. During her speech at the Democratic National Convention, she listed the issues for the month of November.

“The freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis,” Harris said in Chicago.

She sued oil companies for environmental violations as California attorney general. As a senator, Harris was an early co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, a non-binding plan to transition to clean energy within a decade.

She has previously suggested a climate pollution tax to “make polluters pay for their greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere.”

“Harris has a very strong environmental record and will lead us forward in building the clean energy economy that the world is increasingly demanding, while ensuring that these things are built right here at home.” , Moffitt said.

“We can develop clean energy while reducing emissions.”

But Harris has also taken a more centrist turn since rising to the top of the Democratic ticket. During the presidential debate, she boasted that the Biden-Harris administration had overseen “the largest increase in domestic oil production in history.”

She also reversed a 2019 commitment to ban fracking.

Brouillette said there had been “disgraceful attempts by both candidates to outdo each other,” but that a Trump presidency would set the world on a disastrous path.

If the Republican leader wins in November, Brouilette warned that the rest of the world will have to react.

“It is more important than ever that all other major economies, including Canada, step up and demonstrate very ambitious leadership on climate.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published October 26, 2024.

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press