After Joe Manchin tanked a major clean energy plan, Biden will reportedly unveil a massive $500 billion effort to fight the climate crisis

President Joe Biden.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Democrats' reconciliation bill will reportedly include a $500 billion climate investment, per Axios.
Amid other cuts to the bill, this investment would not be too far off from Democrats' initial proposal.
Biden had expressed concern that the "prestige" of the US is in danger after Manchin opposed a key clean energy provision.

Although Democrats are working toward a slimmed-down framework for their social spending bill, a priority many of them had from the start - significant investments in combatting the climate crisis - looks like it might make the cut.

Sources familiar with the matter told Axios on Tuesday that the climate portion of Democrats' social-sending bill is "mostly settled" and will have a pricetag of $500-555 billion, which isn't too far off the $600 billion proposal Democrats first proposed under their initial $3.5 trillion package.

President Joe Biden had previously expressed concerns that the bill would not meet the urgency of the climate crisis after West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin - a centrist Democratic holdout on the bill - opposed the inclusion of the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP), which would have allowed for Biden to reach his goal to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030.

"This will be, just as a matter of fact, the biggest climate bill in human history," Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz told Axios. "At least a half a trillion dollars. That's a pretty good story to tell at the Conference of Parties," he added, referring to the United Nations (UN) climate summit in Glasgow next week. Biden, too, is looking ahead to the UN summit, saying the "prestige" of the US is at stake on the world stage without a significant climate plan.

Insider reported on Tuesday that ahead of the climate summit, the UN skewered world leaders over their handling of the climate crisis, with UN Chief António Guterres saying countries are "utterly failing" in meeting climate goals, and world leaders need to work to avoid a "climate catastrophe."

To be sure, nothing is finalized yet in Democrats' reconciliation bill and they have yet to release a framework or bill text, but Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said she plans to do so before Biden heads to Glasgow. But a $500 billion investment would be a significant win for Biden and progressives, amid other reported cuts to the bill, like free community college and an extended five-year child tax credit.

As the UN made clear, this climate investment cannot come soon enough. The Paris agreement set a goal to keep global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, but a recent UN report found that unless action is taken quickly, temperatures could rise to about 2.7 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

And especially following a UN report in August saying some of global warming's effects will be "irreversible for centuries to millennia," pressure is ramping up on Biden and other countries in meeting the urgency of climate change.

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