Everyone in the U.S. (and around the world) is feeling angsty about the upcoming election next Tuesday, November 5, and not without reason. Plenty of rhetoric and hate are being thrown around, and it's an uneasy time in the U.S.

There are also a plethora of questions about the policies each candidate has around climate, so we thought we’d take a look at the climate policies that Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have proposed, what they believe about the proven science of climate change, and offer a voters guide on just what each candidate might with climate policy should they win the presidency.

Harris on Climate

Vice President Kamala Harris believes in the science of climate change and that it is largely driven by human activity, according to reporting at The Washington Post. She has significant support from a number of environmental and climate advocacy groups, including the Sierra Club and the Environmental Defense Fund. As The Hill points out, climate activists see this presidential election as potentially having extreme consequences for the future of our planet, and they’ve mobilized to get the vote out and support Harris’ policies.

On her official election site, Harris has a section on climate policies that outline some of the plans she has to tackle climate change if she wins the election. She points out her long record of taking on big oil (During her time as California attorney general, she prosecuted oil companies for environmental violations) and her role in casting the tie-breaking vote for the history Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which has been a significant source of investment in clean energy, transportation and more.

Harris has said that she opposes fracking and offshore drilling. However, her campaign recently had to backtrack on the fracking issue, according to the AP, as it is a massive industry in the swing state of Pennsylvania, even though they have had some significant drinking water pollution issues as a result. It is important to note that during her time as Vice President, alongside President Joe Biden, the United States has produced and exported the most crude oil out of any country at any other time, according to ABC News and the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

While Harris has not outlined the specifics of her climate plan, many experts expect her to continue the course laid out by Biden and to support clean energy, electric vehicle adoption, and the onshoring of clean energy jobs. As we recently wrote, Biden’s green energy efforts have had a significant impact on climate jobs–causing the space to boom.

Trump on Climate

Former President Donald Trump is a climate change denier and has repeatedly spread misinformation about climate science, clean energy, and more. Just last month, he called climate change “one of the greatest scams of all time.” As the Washington Post points out, he has called global warming a hoax and shown callousness when dealing with climate disasters like the hurricane that hit Puerto Rico (tossing paper towels to the crowd as a way to "clean up" after the devastation). Trump's circle of supporters, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, have repeated wild, unbased conspiracy theories about the impact that climate change has had on our weather, even going so far as to accuse political adversaries of being behind massive hurricanes like Helene that recently hit North Carolina and Milton which devastated central Florida earlier this month.

Trump is keen on fossil fuels, and during his presidency, he made significant rollbacks to benefit big oil and gas and dissolved more than 100 environmental regulations. Trump is also against offshore wind farms, claiming, falsely, that wind farms kill whales. He has said that during his second term he would roll back all the Biden administration's efforts to move the country toward renewable energy..

Much of Trump’s climate and energy policy is taken straight from Project 2025, a playbook released by former Trump administration officials and conservative activists that outlines details about what a second Trump term would mean for climate policies. While Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, the policies contained therein are likely to come to fruition should he win the presidency because they align with what he’s said, previously done in his previous administration, and campaigned on over the last year.

Trump has openly said that he will roll back the Biden Administration’s climate laws even if it would hurt Republican districts and the economy. According to Inside Climate News, "One report by E2, a pro-environment business group, identified at least 334 “clean energy and clean vehicle” projects announced since the law’s enactment, with the potential to create 110,000 jobs. Those projects were spread across 40 states, with nearly 60 percent in congressional districts represented by Republicans.

Another assessment, by the Rhodium Group, examined total “clean technologies and infrastructure” investment by businesses and consumers in the two years after the bill’s enactment, and found it had climbed to nearly $500 billion, a 71 percent increase from the two preceding years,” they reported. Rolling back the climate laws that Biden enacted would have dire consequences for both the economy as a whole and the green jobs boom.

Since Trump has repeatedly peddled climate change denial, he has also said he would kill any further study of climate change, dismantle NOAA, the National Weather Service, and the EPA, and "Drill, Baby, Drill," in pristine places like the Arctic. While his plans for the EPA, NOAA and the National Weather Service are all detailed in Project 2025, he’s made numerous statements over the years targeting these government agencies and the climate work they do. The Supreme Court, with three Trump-appointed justices, recently kneecapped the EPA’s ability to enforce environmental regulations, and it's safe to assume that we'll see even more of this should Trump win a second term.

Trump has also said he would once again withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Accords, which would significantly harm the global fight against climate change. Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement during his term.

New Climate Jobs

Check out some of the latest featured jobs below. If you don't see anything that speaks to you, you can always go to Climatebase to explore thousands of other opportunities.

VEIR

“VEIR’s new generation of superconducting electric transmission lines operate with negligible losses at much higher currents than conventional lines and other advanced conductors. The result is transmission of 5-10x more power than conventional lines at a given voltage level. VEIR reduces the space needed to transmit power, maximizes the transfer capabilities in existing corridors, and reduces requirements for new corridors. ...”

• Lead Manufacturing Process Engineer (In-person · Woburn, MA...)
• Sr. Instrumentation and Controls Engineer (In-person · Woburn, MA...)
• CAD Designer (In-person · Woburn, MA...)
• Lead Transmission Planning/Protection Engineer (In-person · Woburn, MA...)
• Superconducting Systems Engineer - Modeling (In-person · Woburn, MA...)
• Senior Engineering Technician (In-person · Woburn, MA...)
• Project Manager (In-person · Woburn, MA...)
• Finance Manager (FP&A) (In-person · Woburn, MA...)
• Procurement Coordinator (In-person · Woburn, MA...)
• Director of Business Development, Commercial & Industrial (Remote · Woburn, MA, US)
• Controller (In-person · Woburn, MA...)
• Director of Business Development, Utilities (Remote · Woburn, MA, US)

Aiga Capital Partners

“Aiga Capital Partners (“Aiga”) is a minority-owned investment manager providing private debt and preferred equity solutions to North American-based, sustainable infrastructure developers. These investments include companies in the renewable energy, energy storage, energy efficiency, electric vehicle charging, and low carbon chemicals and fuels sectors. Aiga’s mission is to provide asset developers with growth capital to catalyze the deployment of assets ...”

• Associate (Hybrid · Jersey City, ...)
• Operations Manager (Hybrid · Jersey City, ...)

Greentech Renewables

“We strive to be the most innovative solar distributor providing equipment and technical services to meet the needs of solar installers and developers. Greentech Renewables prioritizes our commitment to providing customers with exceptional service and top-tier products from prominent renewable energy manufactures. We remain a part of Consolidated Electrical Distributors, Inc. This affords us the same scale and stability in servicing ...”

• Management Trainee (In-person · Austin, TX...)

Tyba

“AI-powered, end-to-end simulation and operating platform that helps you develop, manage, and optimize standalone and hybrid storage projects. ...”

• Growth Marketing Manager (Hybrid)
• Software Engineer, Product (Hybrid)
• Enterprise Account Executive (Hybrid)
• Power Markets Analyst (Hybrid)

Aquaria

“Creating water from the air to safeguard access against climate change Aquaria creates clean water from the air to backup residential and commercial water. Whether faced with drought, contamination or other disruptions, Aquaria's atmospheric water generators can guarantee an alternative water supply. We are transforming access to life's most precious resource. ...”

• Technical Customer Success Manager (Remote · United States)
• Inbound Sales Development Representative (Remote · United States)
• Account Executive (Texas Based) (Remote · United States)

Development Seed

“Development Seed is an engineering and design shop with team members around the world and offices in Washington, DC and Lisbon, Portugal. We’re a team of developers, designers, and product managers creating positive social impact with open tech and open knowledge alongside organizations like the World Bank, UNICEF, and NASA. ...”

• Technical Project Lead (Remote)
• General Application (Remote)

LabStart

“LabStart builds accessible pathways for underrepresented entrepreneurs to bring climate technologies from lab-to-market. A trove of valuable, scalable climate technologies continues to sit dormant - untapped and hidden behind research institution walls. To unlock these ready-innovations in a way that generates equitable market opportunities, we match market-ready intellectual property (IP) with talented entrepreneurs. Our vision is to reimagine the lab-to-market ...”

• LabStart Associate (Hybrid)

Scope Zero

“At Scope Zero, we created a new employee benefit, the Carbon Savings Account® (CSA); think health savings account (HSA), but for home technology and personal transportation upgrades. CSA upgrades can save the average US home over $5,000 per year. The CSA platform measures and reports carbon emission reductions that accelerate corporate sustainability goals. Our platform links employees, employers, and partner ...”

• Founding Account Executive (Hybrid · New York, NY, US)

CarboNet

“As freshwater becomes scarce and increasingly regulated, companies from energy and mining to food and beauty turn to CarboNet to reduce, recycle, and renew the water they need to thrive. ...”

• Marketing Manager [Water] (Remote)

Charm Industrial

“Our mission is to reverse climate change and return the atmosphere to 280 ppm CO₂. To pursue this challenge, we convert waste biomass into carbon-rich bio-oil and inject it into permanent, underground storage wells as a form of carbon removal, or reform it to produce green hydrogen and syngas for industrial processes like steel, cement, and chemicals manufacturing. In 2020 and ...”

• Development Geologist (BF0028) (In-person · San Franci...)
• Test Engineering Manager (In-person · San Franci...)
• Accounts Payable Specialist (In-person · Fort Lupto...)
• Facilities Technician - San Francisco, CA (BF0026) (In-person · San Franci...)
• Engineering Maintenance Specialist (BH0097) (In-person · Fort Lupto...)
• Senior Accountant (BF0029) (In-person · Fort Lupto...)
• Injection Operations Engineer (BH0143) (In-person · Wichita, K...)
• Field Operations - Pyrolyzer Operator (Multiple) (In-person · Fort Lupto...)
• Entry Level Field Operations - Pyrolyzer Operator (Multiple) (In-person · Fort Lupto...)
• Engineering Manager (BF0025) (Hybrid · San Francisco...)
• Senior People Operations Manager (BF0019) (In-person · Fort Lupto...)
• Automation Engineer - CO (BF0022) (In-person · Fort Lupto...)

SYSTEMIQ

“SYSTEMIQ orchestrates system change in clean energy, circular material solutions and sustainable land use. This means re-imagining our industries, re-configuring the world of energy, and regenerating the ecosystems around us. By addressing systemic failures in these areas, SYSTEMIQ aims to unlock economic opportunities that benefit business, society, and the environment. Since our start in 2016, we have grown to more than ...”

• Strategy Manager/Engagement Manager-Energy Platform (In-person · Amsterdam,...)
• Strategy Associate - Energy and Decarbonisation (Hybrid · London, Engla...)
• Strategy Associate - Energy and Decarbonisation (Hybrid · Amsterdam, NH...)
• Strategy Manager/Engagement Manager-Energy Platform (Hybrid · London, Engla...)
• Analytics Director (Remote · United Kingdom)
• Strategy Manager/Engagement Manager-Energy Platform (Hybrid · Munich, BY, DE)

Optera

“Who is Optera? We deliver software and expert services to help the world’s largest companies stop climate change. Our market-leading products provide companies with the tools and insight they need to reduce the environmental impacts of their businesses, supply chains, and products. We are backed by some of the most respected US-based venture capital firms and have a robust client list, ...”

• Sustainability Project Director (Hybrid · United States...)

Terraformation

“We’re an early-stage startup that cares passionately about solving the climate crisis. We believe that forests are the most effective, safe, and scalable carbon drawdown solution. Our mission is to accelerate restoration of 3 billion acres of degraded lands to their native ecosystems, activating the most massive carbon drawdown effort on the planet. We help partners secure diverse native seed supply, tackle ...”

• Head of Restoration (Hybrid · Remote · Unit...)
• Administrative Assistant (In-person · Kailua-Kon...)
• Senior Corporate Counsel (Remote · United States)
• Head of Global Programs (Hybrid · Remote · Unit...)

Heirloom

“Heirloom is on a mission to restore balance to our atmosphere. We are removing 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2035, using natural processes to engineer the world's most cost-effective Direct Air Capture solution. Naturally occurring minerals - alongside forests, soils, and the ocean - are one of our planet's most vital carbon sinks. Over geological timescales, carbon dioxide in the ...”

• Senior Mechanical Engineer, Prototype (In-person · Brisbane, ...)
• Director, Energy and Origination (In-person · Brisbane, ...)
• Senior Equipment Safety Engineer (In-person · Brisbane, ...)
• Head of People (Hybrid · Remote · Bris...)
• PLM Administrator (In-person · Brisbane, ...)
• Automation Controls Engineer, Electrical Engineering (In-person · Brisbane, ...)
• Senior Mechanical Engineer, High Volume (In-person · Brisbane, ...)
• Senior Analytics Engineer (Remote · Brisbane, CA, US)
• Head of Deployment Strategy (Hybrid · Remote · Bris...)
• Senior Counsel, Project Development - Brisbane, CA or Houston, TX (In-person · Brisbane, ...)
• Technical Program Manager, Thermal Systems (In-person · Brisbane, ...)
• Systems Administrator (In-person · Brisbane, ...)
• Process Design Engineer, Plant Design (In-person · Houston, T...)
• Head of Supply Chain and Manufacturing (In-person · Brisbane, ...)

Revalue Nature Ltd

“Revalue exists to deliver a fundamental step-change in the quality and integrity of carbon projects. We do this by rethinking projects from the ground up - slightly better is not good enough - in order to build confidence in the market and deliver impact at a planetary scale. Our world cannot afford anything less. This mission drives us every day. Revalue ...”

• Biodiversity Specialist (Hybrid · United Kingdom)
• People Manager (Remote · United Kingdom)
• Senior Machine Learning Engineer (Remote · United Kingdom)
• Senior Transformation Associate (Remote · United Kingdom)
• Assessment Associate (Remote · United Kingdom)
• Senior Data Platform Engineer (Remote · United Kingdo...)
• Forester (Remote · United Kingdom)
• Assessment Manager (Remote · United Kingdom)
• Assessment Director (Remote · United Kingdom)

The Environmental Defense Fund

“With world attention on both the environment and the economy, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is where policymakers and business leaders turn for win-win solutions. By focusing on strong science, uncommon partnerships and market-based approaches, we tackle urgent threats with practical solutions. We are one of the world’s largest environmental organizations, with more than two million members and a staff of ...”

• Manager, MethaneSAT Business Development (Remote · United States)
• Legal Fellow, US Clean Energy (Remote · Washington, D...)
• Senior Manager, Global Benefits (Hybrid · Remote · Unit...)
• ​​2L Legal Intern​(Hybrid · Washington, D...)
• 2L Legal Intern (Hybrid · Boulder, CO, US)
• Senior Climate Scientist (Hybrid · Remote · Unit...)
• Global Accounting Manager (In-person · New York, ...)
• Senior Specialist, Talent Development (Remote · New York, NY, US)
• Senior Research Analyst, Methane Science, Asia (Remote · United States)
• High Meadows Postdoctoral Fellow, Economics (Remote · United States)
• Project Manager, India Operations (Hybrid · Remote · Unit...)

XFuel

“Our mission is to decarbonise the transportation industry, and we devote our technology, time and talent to advancing the transition to sustainable low-carbon fuels. In 2010 we set a challenge to produce an alternative fuel which could compete with fossil fuels from both an environmental and economic perspective. In this time we have developed and patented breakthrough technology, which successfully achieves ...”

• Process Engineer (In-person · Palma, IB, ES)
• Automation & Electric Engineer (In-person · Palma, IB, ES)

Cortex Sustainability Intelligence

“A Human-First organization that is passionate about creating the fastest and lowest-cost path to decarbonize buildings. Real estate is the single largest contributor to carbon emissions, with buildings and construction generating nearly 40% of global carbon emissions. As the wave of sustainability incentives and requirements sweep across the US and the world, buildings are going to be right in the ...”

• Product Marketing Manager (Hybrid,Remote)

CarbonCure Technologies

“CarbonCure Technologies is an award-winning clean technology company leading a global mission to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete – the world’s most used building material. Our vision is to drive an annual reduction of 500 megatonnes of carbon dioxide(CO2) emissions; the equivalent of removing 100 million cars from the road. Our technology has been installed in over 400 concreteplants ...”

• Senior Financial Analyst (In-person · Dartmouth,...)
• Concrete Technical Services Specialist (Remote · United States)
• Senior Manager, Research & Development (In-person · Dartmouth,...)

Electric Hydrogen

“Founded by experienced renewable energy technologists and backed by committed mission-driven investors, Electric Hydrogen is building solutions to help cost-effectively decarbonize the massive industrial sectors that we all rely on. At Electric Hydrogen we’re thinking big and with urgency to decarbonize the physical world. ...”

• People Partner (HR Site Manager) (Hybrid · Devens, MA, US)
• Staff Power Electronics Embedded Firmware Engineer (In-person · San Jose, ...)
• Corporate Development Analyst (In-person · Natick, MA...)
• Vice President of Commercial - EMEA (Hybrid · Remote · Unit...)