CNN's climate crisis town hall

A 19-year-old activist asked former Vice President Joe Biden how young voters can trust him to to prioritize their futures.

She asked: "Older generations have continued to fail our generation by repeatedly choosing money and power over our lives and our futures, so how we can trust you to put us — the future — over the wants of large corporations and wealthy individuals?"

Biden quickly responded: "Because I've never done it."

He continued: 

A little context: Earlier this year, before Biden released a climate plan, Biden faced criticism from progressives who argued the former vice president would not go far enough to combat climate change.

They were citing a Reuters report that quoted a Biden adviser who touted the need to find a "middle ground" approach as progressives push the Green New Deal.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is now taking questions at CNN's climate crisis town hall.

At total tonight, 10 Democratic presidential candidates will take the stage.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar said said that one way to get people to use less energy is to send out electric bills with a neighborhood ranking because it comes with a sense of competitive accomplishment. 

This is right out of environmental lawyer's Cass Sunstein school of thought: that government should harness human nature to "nudge" better social behavior. It seems quaint but a massive retooling of world consumption might never happen without some of this kind of psychology. 

Amy Klobuchar isn’t ready to ban fracking, but on Wednesday night, she called for a reversal to Trump administration's move to rollback regulations on methane emissions.

“I see natural gas as a transitional fuel, it is better than oil, but it's not nearly as good as wind and solar,” Klobuchar said, before adding that she was concerned by one of the most dangerous byproducts of its extraction.

She also pledged to review every fracking permit during the first 100 days of her administration and, earlier, denounced White House deregulation of methane emissions.

“One of the things, among many, that the Trump administration has done that is so bad for our environment, that I would reverse, is their changes to methane rules and methane emission," she said. "That is very dangerous.”

Klobuchar also said she would hope to “go to carbon neutral by 2050,” though she would push for a faster transition. That means no new coal plants and a new look at nuclear plants if safe storage could be assured.

The fight to combat climate change should be treated like the space race or the civil rights movement, Klobuchar said, moments “where our country came together and said, we're going to solve something.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar was just asked about the wildfires in the Amazon, the Brazilian rainforest that is home to at least 10% of the world's biodiversity, produces 20% of the world's oxygen and helps regulate the temperature of the whole planet.

Environmental organizations and researchers say the wildfires were set by cattle ranchers and loggers who want to clear and utilize the land, emboldened by the country's pro-business president.

Klobuchar called the fires a "tragedy" and outlined some ways she'd try to combat the issue.

"Because we are at a point — between the fires and some of the decisions for deforestation — that it's very dangerous to our climate, and I think just shows how everything is interrelated," she added.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar laid out on Wednesday how her first week in the White House would take on the climate crisis.

On her first day in office, Klobuchar said she would reenter the Paris climate accord. On the second day, Klobuchar said, she would bring back clean power rules that President Barack Obama pushed but were rolled back by President Donald Trump. And on day three, she would do the same with gas mileage standards for US car companies.

While Klobuchar said she would take action without Congress, she said the rest of her first week in office would focus on “sweeping legislation” to tackle the issue.

“On day 7, you’re supposed to rest,” Klobuchar said, “but I don’t think I will.”

“So that’s the first seven days,” she continued. “And from there you make this a top priority to get this passed.”

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar just took the stage at CNN's climate crisis town hall.

In total, 10 2020 Democrats will answer questions tonight.

Asked what she would do to help at-risk people threatened by climate change, Harris said they would benefit from her commitment to lifting up all marginalized communities.

“Ultimately it’s about empowering communities that are often ignored,” Harris said in response to a question from a man with a spinal cord injury that has left him with thermodysregulation -- or the inability for the body to control its own temperature, leaving him unable to sweat. The health risk rises during hot summers like this one.

“No community should be dumped on and no community should be less than,” Harris said, pointing specifically to black and brown and indigenous people.

Harris also touted her founding of an environment justice unit during her time as the district attorney in San Francisco -- a decision, she said, that came partly in response to the pollution of a nearby area with a low household income, which diminished its ability to rally political support for its cause.

California Sen. Kamala Harris said she would seek to ban fracking and offshore drilling if she is elected president.

“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” she said of the controversial form of oil and natural gas extraction at CNN’s town hall on the climate crisis.

Harris said she’d backed efforts to stop the practice in California as attorney general. As a Senate candidate in 2016, she said she was skeptical of fracking.

What is fracking, anyway? Learn more in the video below: