Can Biden win over climate activists?

WASHINGTON — From the earliest days of his presidential campaign, progressive climate advocates viewed Joe Biden with skepticism. He declined to fully endorse the Green New Deal. He opposed a total ban on fracking. Young activists were scathing in their criticism of him, and he was at times openly dismissive of their concerns.

But now, less than four months before Election Day, Biden is moving urgently to unite and energize his party around his candidacy, aware of the need to engage younger, more liberal voters. On climate issues, there are signs that Biden’s allies and some leading progressives have quietly started to forge common ground.

In recent weeks, supporters of Biden and of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, his chief rival in the Democratic presidential primary race, have met privately over Zoom, part of several joint task forces that the two contenders established to generate policy recommendations on core domestic priorities and to facilitate party unity. After two months of those conversations, task force members representing both camps say they have finalized a set of ambitious, near-term climate targets that they hope Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, will incorporate into his platform.

“I do believe we were able to make meaningful progress,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who headed the climate panel with former Secretary of State John Kerry, said last week. Rep. Donald McEachin, D-Va., a Biden ally who was also on the task force, called it a “collaborative process” that developed wide-ranging policies.

Still, Ocasio-Cortez, who has previously clashed with Biden over his approach to combating climate change, struck a note of caution. “Now, what he does with those recommendations, ultimately, is up to him,” she said.

Those goals, according to three people familiar with the task force’s decisions, include committing to seeing the United States’ electricity sector powered fully by renewable energy by 2035 and a rapid transition to energy-efficient buildings. They also seek a promise to begin developing new vehicle efficiency standards to replace and improve upon the Obama administration measures President Donald Trump weakened.