The impending presidential election will bring the US to a “crossroads in climate change leadership that will have unprecedented national and international implications,” according to analysis by Dr. Marcus D. King, the John O Rankin Associate Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Climate and Security. 

If Democrat Joe Biden ousts incumbent Donald Trump, American climate policy will dramatically shift, giving the country the chance to re-enter the Paris Climate Accord and reverse the current administration's roll-back of various environmental regulations. King argues that doing so will allow the US to restore its leadership position on an issue that has already started to impact American communities while also rebuilding credibility on the world stage. 

“...the events that will unfold on November 4, the day after the US presidential election, will have real-world stakes for our planet that could not be higher.” - Marcus DuBois King, PhD

During a campaign stop in Florida, Biden shared that in an Obama-era briefing, the Joint Chiefs of Staff - the most senior uniformed leaders at the Department of Defense - identified global warming as the greatest threat to national security in part due to the inevitable displacement of millions of people. 

King raises the important point that re-establishing American leadership on climate policy will likely give US leaders much needed leverage to encourage other major greenhouse gas emitters to reduce emissions under the Paris framework. This of course includes China and India, two countries that will face major population movement and displacement as a result of climate change, especially if substantial progress is not made. In India, for example, decreasing agricultural yields due to more frequent droughts and other severe weather is fueling rural-to-urban migration, something India is not prepared to handle. A shift in American climate leadership has the potential to ameliorate such trends by encouraging countries like India to take more dramatic steps to address the climate crisis and, we hope, optimize climate financing to support India and other countries more robustly in adaptation to strengthen its resiliency. 

As the impacts of climate change worsen, the upcoming US presidential election offers an urgent chance for policy re-alignment that would be mutually beneficial to populations at home and abroad. (The Pacific Council Magazine)