His pledge will create millions of well-paid jobs, boost public transport and cut inequality. It highlights Britain’s lack of ambition
• Matthew Pennycook MP is the shadow minister for climate change
Throughout the Democratic party presidential primary, candidate Joe Biden was variously chastised for his preference for incrementalism, for declining to fully endorse the Green New Deal, and for his perceived unwillingness to take on fossil fuel interests. Last December, the Sunrise Movement, an influential youth-led activist group that backed Bernie Sanders, graded his primary-season climate plan an F-. Yet even this group had to offer Biden cautious praise last month after he unveiled a plan to invest $2tn in clean energy, jobs and infrastructure in the four years of his first term, should he beat Donald Trump in November’s election.
The chances of the plan making it through the US Congress without modification may be low but the boldness of the proposals it sets out is still instructive. The Democratic nominee has committed to eliminating carbon emissions from the power sector of the world’s second-largest polluter within 15 years.
Related: How the global climate fight could be lost if Trump is re-elected