During a loud and heated debate that at times devolved into name calling, the two presidential candidates answered questions from the moderator, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, about their position on "the science of climate change."
When pressed by Wallace on his position on climate change, Trump replied that he believes in "crystal clear" air and water and repeatedly said that "we are planting a billion trees," although the president did not specify who is planting the trees. Trump said he agrees that pollution contributes to the warming of the planet "to an extent," but that there needs to be forest management to combat wildfires, which he blamed on dead trees piling up on the forest floor.
Wallace continued to press the Republican president on the topic, asking him why his administration has been rolling back fuel economy standards in a move that will create more pollution.
But Trump defended his policies, explaining that tough emissions rules would take "a lot more cars off the market," and that without them, "at least double or triple" the number of vehicles would be purchased and they would be "much safer" and cheaper.
Trump also called the Paris Agreement a "disaster." The landmark deal was signed in 2015 by 195 countries including the U.S. in an attempt to address threats posed by climate change. But within months of taking office in 2017, Trump withdrew from the agreement, fulfilling a campaign promise and ignoring pleas from lawmakers, businesses and members of his own administration to stay in the deal.
For his part, Biden called Trump's concerns about the impact of emissions standards on the economy "absolutely wrong." Biden noted that the U.S. currently spends billions of dollars dealing with the effects of global warming, combating floods caused by hurricanes and rising sea levels that can wipe out communities.
"They didn't happen before," he said.
The Democratic challenger added that under his leadership, the nation would reenter the Paris accord.
"No one's going to build another oil-fired plant in America," Biden said. "They're going to move to renewable energy."
The environment was one of many wide-ranging topics the candidates hotly debated during the first of three presidential debates, which lasted 90 minutes and escalated to yelling at multiple points, prompting Wallace to repeatedly ask the candidates to stop interrupting each other and him.
During the debate, Trump promised to repeal the landmark 2017 tax law, and the pair disagreed over when to fill a vacant U.S. Supreme Court seat and whether Biden should address liberal proposals to add more justices. They also sparred over mail-in ballots, the president's response to the coronavirus and his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, among other issues.
The next debates are scheduled for Oct. 15 and 22. Election Day is Nov. 3.
--Additional reporting by Keith Goldberg and Juan Carlos Rodriguez. Editing by Breda Lund.
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