Hillary Clinton’s Climate Action Credentials in 19 Tweets

Posts 03 Aug 2016

Hillary Clinton says she wants to make America the clean energy superpower of the 21st century.

Clinton and Donald Trump, the two remaining major contestants in the US presidential race, have clearly stated their positions. Whoever will occupy the White House in January 2017 will either implement the Paris Agreement, or pull the world’s largest historic polluter – and Europe’s top ally – out of the global deal.

While Trump says climate change is a “hoax,” Clinton says Americans can help “save our planet while creating millions of good-paying clean energy jobs.” The Daily Planet has combed through the Democratic nominee’s Twitter feed to find out what’s she’s been saying exactly.

We would have included Trump’s tweets on climate change for comparison, but it would seem the Republican nominee for president hasn’t tweeted the word climate once during or since the Paris Agreement was adopted in December.

Paris Agreement

On the eve of the historic 2015 climate summit in Paris, Clinton tweeted “We must reject the false choice between combating climate change and fostering strong economic growth.”

“If any country can prove that, it’s the United States,” she said.

Two weeks later, on the day the universal agreement to take action against climate change was adopted, Clinton tweeted a statement saying it was a “historic step.”

“As president,” she said, “I will make combating climate change a top priority from day one, and secure America’s future as the clean energy superpower of the 21st century.”

Following the agreement’s ceremonial signing by almost 200 countries and the European Union in New York a few months later, Clinton tweeted she was “proud” the United States was signing the deal, and that the US should now hold “every country accountable to their commitments.”

A Clean Energy Economy

Clinton tweeted a video to outline her plans for clean energy. Under her leadership, she says, “more than half a billion solar panels” will be installed across the United States by the end of her first four-year term.

In the video, she also says she will set a goal of generating enough renewable energy to “power every single home in America” within 10 years.

“That’s who we are as Americans,” she says, “We don’t hide from change, we harness it.”

Clinton also tweeted a link to a page on her website with more information about her plan to tackle climate change.

The plan includes policies such as the launch of a $60 billion “Clean Energy Challenge,” cutting “the billions of wasteful tax subsidies oil and gas companies” receive and “cutting energy waste in American homes, schools, hospitals and offices by a third.”

She also pledges to “make American manufacturing the cleanest and most efficient in the world,” among many other things.

The US can create “millions of jobs” by investing in clean energy, Clinton tweeted, along with an image claiming that every two minutes “another solar project lights up America.”

Climate Science

“You don’t have to be a scientist to know that climate change is real,” Clinton says, countering claims by the Republican nominee that climate change is a hoax.

During the UN climate change summit in Paris, she tweeted about 2015’s record breaking temperatures. “Climate change is real, it’s already present,” she tweeted.

In a video she tweeted, Clinton says “I’m just a grandmother with two eyes and a brain. And I know that what’s happening in the world is going to have a big effect on my daughter, and my grand-daughter,” she says, commenting “Climate change is real, and we must act” in her tweet.

Republicans

As one of the two major political parties in the United States, the Republican party is flat-out ignoring science. The party claims that climate change is a hoax – something unheard of in most if not all other countries around the world in 2016.

The Sierra Club recently checked, and concluded that if elected, Donald Trump would literally be the only head of state on the planet to deny the science of climate change.

Earlier this year, the Republicans held debates in the run up to the election to determine who would be the party’s nominee for president of the United States. Climate change was not one of their talking points, and Clinton tweeted: “Want to hear presidential candidates discuss how they’d combat the global threat of climate change? You’re out of luck at the [Republican debate].”

A GIF quoting Clinton as saying “Well I’m not a scientist, either. I’m just a grandmother with two eyes and a brain,” went viral during one of the Republican debates.

Clinton also tweeted a video with quotes about climate change from the Republican candidates. Donald Trump can be seen saying: “The Department of Environmental Protection, we’re going to get rid of it.”

The video also says Trump once sued to stop the construction of a wind park because it would “spoil the view from his golf course.” Ted Cruz, another candidate, can be seen saying: “There has been zero global warming, none whatsoever.”

“We should just drill,” and “global warming hoax” are other Trump quotes featured in the video.

Clinton joked “For a bunch of people who don’t believe in acting on climate change, the Republican candidates seem committed to recycling ideas,” in a tweet sent out during one of the Republican debates.

Donald Trump

Once it became clear the Republicans would settle on Donald Trump as their nominee for president, Clinton addressed his climate change position directly in her tweets.

One tweet includes a video of Trump saying “We’re going to cancel the Paris climate agreement (…) and stop all payments of United States tax dollars to UN global warming programmes.”

Clinton, meanwhile, commented: “Donald Trump thinks climate change is a ‘hoax.’ President Trump would destroy our ability to combat it.”

She also tweeted an image with information about the historic drought that has been devastating California, saying: “Not only does Trump deny climate change, he’s now denying that the drought in California is even happening.”

“What?” she asks, seemingly exasperated.

Trump plans to build a gigantic wall along the US-Mexican border if he becomes president. Clinton tweeted that $25 billion could either pay for that wall, or for “clean energy to power 5 million homes,” before linking to her infrastructure plan.

Her plan includes the promise: “We’ll build a cleaner, more resilient power grid with enough renewable energy to get half our electricity from clean sources by 2030.”

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