Climate change debated between President Trump and former VP Biden
Testing on staging11
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (NewsNation Now) — With a record-breaking hurricane season and wildfires raging in America’s west, climate change was one of several key topics of the final presidential debate before Election Day.
Earth sweltered to a record hot September last month, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration saying there’s nearly a two-to-one chance that 2020 will end up as the globe’s hottest year on record.
The globe set this record despite a La Nina, which is a cooling of parts of the central Pacific that changes weather patterns and usually slightly lowers temperatures.
Climate change was discussed in the first debate, but was not on the original list of topics.
Watch this section of the debate in the player above.
This is one of six topics planned for Thursday’s debate, including Fighting COVID-19, American Families, Race in America, Climate Change, National Security and Leadership.
The debate features six 15-minute segments with two-minutes of uninterrupted opening statements. During the two-minute period, NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker will mute the microphone of the candidate who is not supposed to speak.
The open discussion portion, which counts for the other 11 minutes of each segment, will not feature a mic-muting option, though the commission noted that “time taken up during any interruptions will be returned to the other candidate.”
The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates announced the rule changes Monday in an effort to combat frequent interruptions seen in the first debate. In a statement, the commission said it “had determined that it is appropriate to adopt measures intended to promote adherence to agreed-upon rules and inappropriate to make changes to those rules.”
NewsNation provided unedited sections of the debate all night, so you can see what both sides said.
For more election coverage, tune in to NewsNation and download the NewsNation Now app.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.