Joe Biden has moved to bring the US back to the Paris climate agreement just hours after he was sworn in as president, while his administration issues a cavalcade of action orders aimed at tackling the climate crisis.
Biden’s action plan, signed in the White House on Wednesday, will see the U.S. back down with the international effort to curb the planet’s dangerous warming, after a 30-day notice period. The world’s second-largest release of greenhouse gases was removed from the Paris contract under Donald Trump.
Biden also plans to block the Keystone XL pipeline, a controversial project that would bring large quantities of Canadian oil to the U.S. to refine it, and halt oil and gas drilling at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. two large national monuments. in Utah, and the desert of the Arctic national wildlife reserve. The Trump administration’s decision to reduce the areas of defense at Bear Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will also be reviewed.
The first-day move on the climate crisis came after Biden, in his inaugural speech, said America needed to respond to a “climate in crisis”. The change in direction from the Trump era was profound and immediate – on the White House website, where all references to climate change were leaked out in 2017, there is a new list of priorities now putting the climate crisis in second place just behind the Covid pandemic. Biden has previously warned that climate change is the “biggest threat” to the country, hit by wildfires, hurricanes and heat fuels last year’s climate.
The re-entry into the Paris agreement comes at the end of a period in which the U.S. came close to pariah on the international stage with Trump’s refusal to address the escalating catastrophe in temperature the rising world. Countries are struggling to deliver on commitments, made in Paris in 2015, to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C above the pre-industrial period, with 2020 setting another record for real south.
“It’s just a really big day to get rid of this myopic, benighted administration and welcome in a new president who has clearly promised strong, meaningful action,” said Todd Stern, former keynote speaker. U.S. Conciliation Committee in Paris. “It’s just the first step to going back to Paris, but it’s a big first step.”
Biden is expected to convene an international climate summit in the spring to help accelerate emissions cuts and may push for a new U.S. emissions reduction goal to help it reach emissions. net zero by 2050. “We cannot be intimidated or dissenting about re-using leadership. but we need a sense of humility based on what has happened over the last four years, ”Stern said of America ‘s return to climate diplomacy. “The message is’ we’re back, we’ll move hard.” It will be deliberate, aggressive and strategic. “
Gina McCarthy, Biden’s chief climate adviser, said Biden will completely abandon “more than 100” climate-related policies implemented by Trump.
Republican has twice once rejected the science of climate change and served his term as president weakening or abandoning rules to limit pollution from cars, trucks and power plants. McCarthy said climate change poses a “livelihood threat” and the administration’s opening salvo will begin to “put the U.S. back on the right footing, a foundation we need to restore American leadership, help position our country as a world leader in clean energy and jobs ”.
Biden will be able to unilaterally restrict fossil fuel development on federal land and set stricter regulations for fuel efficiency in cars and trucks but it will be more challenging to get through climate legislation for deeper cuts in emissions get through Congress.
While Democrats control the House, the Senate is split 50-50 and is unlikely to adopt anything in style like the New Deal, which is inspired. with progressive producers such as Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. Instead, Biden’s hopes of providing significant financial support to encourage clean energy such as supply and wind could depend on funding being included in infrastructure budgets and bills.
“There is a real need for water systems, roads and bridges and other things and my colleagues understand that,” said Kathy Castor, a Democrat in Florida who chairs the House’s select committee on the current emergency. weather. “We know we have to go a lot faster. This is a race to the future.”
Scientists and climate activists have hailed the crisis Biden expressed with the worsening effects of climate crisis around the world.
“Even if we can’t get new climate legislation, our branch of action already has a lot of tools,” said Leah Stokes, an expert on environmental policy at the University of California. “The best time to cut emissions was decades ago; the second best trip is today. “