While climate change does not rank among the top issues for voters this election, young voters still look to climate change as one of their deciding factors. While top issues will likely be the deciding factors for who ultimately wins the race to the White House, they are not the only issues plaguing voters’ minds.

The United Nations stipulates that human behavior is warming the planet. Industrialization, large-scale agriculture, and transportation are all major aspects of human life that increase greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn increase global average temperatures, according to the UN. This global warming has led to climates across the world changing and more severe weather events occurring.

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has described climate change as a disaster and said at a press conference in July, “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived. The air is unbreathable. The heat is unbearable. And the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable.”

In the United States, climate change is a concern for some voters. The vast majority of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents see climate change as a major threat to the U.S., and 59 percent of this same group believe that climate change should be a top issue for the president and Congress, according to a March survey by Pew Research Center.

Republicans, on the other hand, display limited concern for the climate, with just 23 percent viewing it as a major threat.

Jackie Fuentes, a fourth-year student at the University of Iowa, is among those voters who share fears over the future of the earth’s climate. As co-president of the Environmental Coalition at the UI, Fuentes believes that climate change ought to be of the utmost importance for voters.

Having said that she has already mourned the loss of nature that she’s seen, Fuentes is now concerned for the global environment. She fears that drought, famine, and rising sea levels will contribute to slowing development and international conflicts, ultimately resulting in mass destruction.

“Some days I’m very glass half-empty, and some days I’m very glass half-full,” Fuentes said.

Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have expressed opinions on climate policy, and their plans are drastically different.

Donald Trump has been dismissive of climate change as a threat and views climate legislation as a hindrance to American economic success. According to Trump’s campaign website he plans for America to have the No. 1 lowest cost of energy and electricity on the planet. To achieve this, Trump vows to keep pace with the fossil-fuel-dependent world economy and “DRILL BABY DRILL.”

This would entail exiting the Paris Climate Accords and opposing Green New Deal policies, which, according to Trump, hinder the development of American energy resources.

He also plans to remove legal red tape from slowing down the development of natural gas pipelines and other energy projects, along with providing tax relief for America’s oil, gas, and coal producers.

Trump claims that these actions, among many others outlined in his campaign, will result in the United States having the lowest cost of energy and electricity in the world, therefore lowering inflation, creating millions of high-wage jobs, and ultimately propelling the U.S. economy forward.

Kamala Harris’s messaging on climate legislation has also had an economic focus. Harris plans to simultaneously address the climate change crisis, lower U.S. energy costs, create new jobs, protect public lands and health, and ensure clean air and clean water for Americans.

To do this, Harris aims at heavily investing in a clean energy economy to shift America’s energy dependence away from foreign oil producers. Harris cites the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, as an example of how she would approach investment in the clean energy sector. Since the IRA’s passing, Harris says that companies have announced more than $265 billion in clean energy investments and created more than 330,000 new jobs.

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Kylah Hedding, an assistant professor at the Journalism School at UI whose expertise lies in environmental policy messaging, said that climate change has become more of a priority for voters in recent years, but it rarely ranks among their top priorities.

“The problem is that when you ask people if they care about the climate, they say yes,” Hedding said. “But then when you ask people to rate the issues that are their top issues, environment and climate almost never make it to the top of their list.”

Hedding believes that the outcome of the upcoming presidential election will likely have major impacts on climate policy. She said that while the Democrats under the Biden-Harris administration have taken direct action to address climate concerns through legislation such as the IRA, the Republican party leadership has been hostile to discussions about the issue and its effects. Hedding thinks these differences will reveal themselves in potential legislation.

“I think it’s pretty clear that if Harris doesn’t win, we’re going to see a big rollback in the U.S. as a leader in addressing climate issues, if we even are a leader at this point,” Hedding said.

Delaney Behning, a fourth-year student at the UI, is cognizant of the differences in Harris and Trump’s messaging on climate.

“I do find that climate change is usually prioritized by the Democrat party, whereas with the Republican party, it’s either not brought up as a significant issue, or it might be brought up as a non-issue,” Behning said.

Behning said that she agrees with the Democrats’ approach and thinks that climate change should be viewed as a top priority in U.S. elections.

Behning said that a Harris administration would have a positive impact on the climate, mentioning Harris’s plan to invest in clean energy. Behning appreciates Harris’s involvement in the IRA and said that the U.S. needs expeditiously more of that kind of legislation to address climate change.

On the other hand, Behning expresses concerns about a potential re-election of Donald Trump. She is worried Trump will continue to deregulate fossil fuel industries in the U.S., exit international agreements like the Paris Climate Agreement, and propel rhetoric that climate change is a hoax.

“The impact of this presidential election on global climate change progress and consequences is definitely fundamental,” Behning said. “A lot can happen in four years.”