This is from a Joe Biden interview with the NY Times editorial board:
BA: You’ve talked about the urgency of the climate change. The new NAFTA agreement includes no measures aimed at dealing with climate change. At what point should Democrats stop voting for international agreements that fail to deal with climate change?
Well, first of all, the two things that the new NAFTA agreement has, is they have enforcement mechanisms. I’ve not read them yet. O.K.? I’m told by staff. Enforcement mechanisms that have environmental protections, as well as, not talking for fundamental climate change, but though you cannot compete and disregard existing climate regulations that exist. So environmentalists are at the table, I’ve been told, and labor’s been at the table and they should be. They should be.
Now, if in fact what I propose is as president, I’m, by the way, I’m not joking. I did. I’m the guy that came back and said, we can embarrass Xi Jinping to join the Paris accord. And everybody looked at me like I was nuts. Well, it did. But what happened was that only works if in fact we are the aggressive leader. So number one, I would immediately rejoin the Paris accord, number one. And number two, I would do what the accord calls for. Upping the ante as circumstances change and more science becomes available that we have less time. For example, think of what we should be doing now in the biggest carbon sink in the world, the Amazon. Instead of talking about $2 billion, I’d be organizing, not a joke, organizing the world as I did in Latin America on other issues, like Colombia and so on. Anyway, to make sure that they in fact either, and we would provide, the world would provide, $20 to $30 billion for them to be able to make up for what they’re going to lose by not having agriculture.
BA: Those are good programs, but do you think Democrats should vote for an agreement that does not affirm the Paris accord and does not contain any binding commitments to deal with climate change?
Look, it’s like saying would you sign an agreement with Turkey on a base closure because it didn’t have that in it? It depends on if it’s related to climate. Absolutely they should be part of it.
BA: But this is not a hypothetical. This is a deal that exists and is coming before the House ——
It is, but the deal relates to matters of trade, that in fact, there is no circumstance where we are saying anything that we’re going to do more or less relative to what we’re selling back and forth across the border. Here’s an example that would matter. China. China, in fact, in their “Belt and Road” proposal is in fact exporting more dirty coal around the world and is subsidizing more than anybody in the world. The answer is, what we should be saying to them is, you keep your agreement on the climate accord, which you signed up to. If you don’t, you will pay a price for it. You will not be able to sell product here. And organize the world to make sure that no, they couldn’t sell product anywhere. To make sure that they in fact have a requirement to stick to what they committed to. They’ve already signed it, so I don’t know. It’s a little bit like saying to me, should we ——
BA: Why wouldn’t you apply that standard to Canada, which is a larger energy exporter than China?
Well, no, by the way, I would. That’s what we should be doing to everybody in the world. I’m basically giving you one example. That’s why I oppose what China’s, what Canada’s doing in terms of the pipelines and the dirty crude they’re sending south on us, letting it go forward. We have to do that. We have to. But we can’t do a damn thing if we don’t meet our responsibility. We make up 15 percent of the problem in the world. We walk away from it all and the rest of the world says, what the hell are you holding me accountable for? You’re not doing anything. That’s why this president’s does such incredible damage, incredible damage to our effort to deal with climate change.
