Climate change finally got its moment on the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago yesterday. After a few days without much talk about emissions, several speakers, including U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, devoted large portions of their speeches to the urgent threat that global warming poses to humanity.

But there were a few notable exceptions to this climate push: Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Both politicians avoided the topic except for a passing reference, a trend in their campaign.

While some advocates are pushing for more climate conversations, others are content with this climate-friendly campaign approach for now.

What happened at the DNC? The first two days in Chicago saw a few scattered events on climate change, including an all-women panel hosted by comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who threw her support behind Harris after playing a fictional vice president on the show herself. cattle.

The actress then introduced Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who said the country should keep working on the Inflation Reduction Act, which pumps billions of dollars into the clean energy transition. Earlier this week, the Democratic Party also officially adopted its 2024 platform, which includes an entire section on climate action. (I wrote about that in Tuesday’s newsletter, if you’re interested in reading more.)

Climate messaging steadily ramped up as the week progressed, culminating in last night’s programming. Haaland took the stage to share her own experiences in the outdoors growing up in New Mexico as a member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe. She emphasized the need to elect a president who knows the importance of protecting the planet for future generations, saying that “Donald Trump has never learned that lesson.”

“An American president must lead the world in addressing climate change,” Haaland added. “Kamala Harris understands that mandate.”

In his speech, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida discussed how the effects of climate change, from deadly storms and hurricanes to extreme heat, are already ravaging people in his state. Earlier in August, Tropical Storm Debby battered Florida with torrential rain and high winds, killing at least five people.

Frost made history in 2023 by becoming the first member of Generation Z to be elected to Congress. Before that, he was a longtime activist with the anti-gun group March for Our Lives.

“The climate crisis is really something that Gen Z has taken over,” said Denae Ávila-Dickson, communications director at the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate activist group. “It’s really important that we have a Gen Z voice talking about climate on the DNC stage,” she told me over the phone ahead of the event.

But what about the DNC’s woman of the hour? During her 38-minute speech at the event, Harris mentioned climate change only once, speaking of the “freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water, and to live free from the pollution that is fueling the climate crisis.”

Climate talks are weakening: In stark contrast to President Joe Biden’s climate-focused 2020 campaign, Harris’s scant coverage on the topic has become a trend in the weeks since she became the presumptive nominee. Walz has pursued a similar strategy, barely mentioning some of his big climate victories, such as helping to pass legislation to transition to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040, which my colleague Kristoffer Tigue wrote about earlier this month.

According to experts, this climate campaign approach – or lack thereof – appears to be intentional.

“I think they are concerned if she takes a strong stance on climate, even [if] “It fits the same position that Biden took, it will make her look too progressive,” Kevin Book, managing director at research firm ClearView Energy Partners, told The New York Times.

Book said the issue could be particularly divisive among voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania, the second-largest producer of natural gas in the U.S. But Edward Maibach, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, said many voters who might be turned off by conversations about climate action would never support Harris anyway.

“Many candidates, officeholders and political strategists are unnecessarily reluctant to talk about climate change,” he told The Washington Post.

Harris’ climate message has drawn mixed reactions from green groups in the US. Before Thursday night, Cassidy DiPaola, a spokesperson for the Make Polluters Pay Campaign, told The Guardian it was “a bit of a shame” that there wasn’t more discussion about climate change in the opening days of the DNC.

Stevie O’Hanlon, communications director for the Sunrise Movement, noted a “major shift” in the climate conversations from Harris and other speakers last night compared to the first few days of the convention. In a statement to Inside Climate News, she said that “talking more about climate change and the threat it poses to all of us is an important and winning message for Kamala Harris and Democrats to talk about.”

She added: “If politicians don’t act in the next six years, the planet that our generation and future generations inherit will be very different from the one we live on now, and a very scary one. It is the responsibility of every politician to talk about that and to talk about the need for bold action.”

Earlier this week, protesters stormed an ExxonMobil-sponsored event at the DNC, calling on the Democratic Party to cut ties with fossil fuel companies.

Others argue that Harris and Walz don’t need to outline their climate policies so early in their campaign because their records speak for themselves.

At a meeting of the DNC’s Environmental & Climate Crisis Council, Harris’ senior climate adviser, Ike Irby, told the crowd that the presidential candidate is committed to “bold action.” Details are scarce, at least for now.

More top climate news

New research shows that Heat deaths in Europe could triple by 2100 if countries do not get their emissions under control. Record summer heatwaves have hit many parts of the continent in recent years, leading to increased mortality rates, particularly among older people and those on low incomes. As warming continues, heat-related deaths are likely to increase disproportionately in the Mediterranean region, the study found.

In the meantime, a deadly neurological disease was discovered in a Colorado mountain lionKylie Mohr reports for National Geographic. This is the first time a “baffling disease” has been identified in North America—normally only found in European domestic cats and zoo animals. The debilitating condition can cause inflammation of the brain and spinal cord that impairs motor skills in domestic and wild cats. Scientists say the disease could pose a threat to North American wildlife if it spreads, but this is currently the only identified case.

In other news, a fire is raging on the Portuguese island of Madeira. The inferno has burned more than 12,000 acres of land, mostly in mountainous areas that are difficult to access. To help reach these difficult fires, the European Union sent two water bombing planes to Madeira on Thursday, Reuters reports.

A new study analyzed 1,500 policies around the world aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, finding that only 4 percent resulted in significant carbon reductionsThere are a few ingredients in the secret sauce of successful projects in that small margin, including making polluters pay for their emissions.

“Other policies help, but they nibble at the edges,” Rob Jackson, a climate scientist at Stanford University who was not involved in the study, told The Associated Press. “Carbon pricing puts the responsibility on the owners and products that are causing the climate crisis.”

Authorities say a weather phenomenon known as a waterspout recently sank a luxury superyacht owned by billionaire Mike Lynch in Italy. Waterspouts, which resemble liquid tornadoes at sea, may become more common due to climate changewrites Alec Luhn for Wired. Waterspouts are caused by warm water and shifting winds, which experts say have likely led to more frequent occurrences.