Democratic nominee Joe Biden linked climate change and pollution to the struggle against racial inequality, vowing to fight as president for environmental justice.
In remarks Tuesday webcast by the League of Conservation Voters, Biden said he would defend communities of color "where people, in fact, tend to be victims of being put in spots where the water is not clean, the air you can't breath."
"Climate change is not just an environmental issue," Biden told the environmental group, which has endorsed him. "They now look at it as a health issue and a jobs issue and an equity issue."
Poor people and people of color often face higher exposure to pollutants, according to the American Lung Association. Pollution sources tend to be located near disadvantaged communities, increasing exposure.
Biden faces the challenge of winning over his party's progressive wing with ambitious climate proposals while at the same time not alienating swing voters in states like Ohio and his native Pennsylvania, where he grew up. He doesn't support a ban on fracking, and has indicated he sees a future role for fossil fuels like coal and natural gas. Still he has called for banning new oil and gas projects on public lands and waters and for putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions.
Biden's $1.7 trillion climate plan unveiled last June includes a portion on environmental justice in addition to setting a goal of 100% clean energy and net-zero emissions by 2050.
Some environmentalists and activists have called on him to flesh out more details of that plan.
Biden said Tuesday he would end injustices put in place by President Donald Trump and "do away with all his executive orders," as well as undo the president's moves to weaken fuel economy standards for automobiles and methane pollution from oil and gas wells with a series of executive orders on his first day in office.
In May, Biden announced that State John Kerry, a secretary of State in the Obama administration, and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would lead a climate change task force that will craft recommendation for the Democratic Party's platform before the nominating convention in August.
The climate change task force, once of six on issues like health care and the economy, also includes Gina McCarthy, who served as head of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama.
And Biden has floated the idea of creating a cabinet position devoted to fighting climate change, remarking during an April fundraiser it would be a job that "goes beyond EPA."
