The United States officially returned to the Paris global climate accord on Friday, and American leaders declared the nation could not afford to ever sideline the growing climate crisis again.
“Climate change and science diplomacy can never again be ‘add-ons’ to our foreign policy discussions,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, in what was expected to be a day of Biden’s administration for global and domestic audiences hitting about the reintroduction of the US to reduce climate-damaging fossil fuel emissions.
“Tackling the real threats from climate change and listening to our scientists is central to our domestic and foreign policy priorities,” said Blinken. “It is essential in our discussions about national security, migration, international health efforts, and in our economic diplomacy and trade talks.”
Officially, President Donald Trump’s removal of the nation from the global global climate pact is stood for only 107 days. It was part of Trump’s withdrawal from global allegiances in general and his oft-quoted but erroneous view that ongoing global warming was a ridiculously misunderstanding by the scientists of the world.
While Friday’s return is heavily symbolic, world leaders say they expect America to prove its seriousness after four years of near-absence. In particular, they anticipate a US announcement in the coming months about its goal of reducing heat-trapping gas emissions by 2030.
The US is returning to the Paris Agreement became official Friday, almost a month after President Joe Biden told the United Nations that America wants to rejoin. “A cry for survival is coming from the planet itself,” Biden said in his inaugural address. “A cry that couldn’t be more desperate or clearer now.”
Biden signed an executive order on his first day of work to reverse the withdrawal on Trump’s orders. The Trump administration had announced its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in 2019, but it did not enter into force until November 4, 2020, the day after the elections, due to provisions in the agreement.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that the official US return “itself is very important,” as well as Biden’s announcement that the US will again provide climate aid to poorer countries, as promised in 2009.
“It’s the political message that is being sent,” said Christiana Figueres, the former United Nations climate chief. She was one of the leading forces in delivering on the largely voluntary 2015 agreement in which countries set their own goals to reduce greenhouse gases.
One of the fears was that other countries would follow America in abandoning the climate battle, but none did, Figueres said. She said the real problem was that the Trump administration did nothing for four years. U.S. cities, states, and businesses were still working to reduce heat-trapping carbon dioxide, but without the federal government.
“From the perspective of political symbolism, whether it’s 100 days or four years, it’s essentially the same,” Figueres said. ‘It’s not about how many days. It is the political symbolism that the largest economy is refusing the opportunity to tackle climate change. “
“We have lost too much time,” said Figueres.
Inger Andersen, director of the United Nations Environment Program, said America needs to prove its leadership to the rest of the world, but she said she has no doubts when it submits the required emissions reduction targets. The Biden government promises to announce them ahead of an Earth Day summit in April.
“We hope they will translate into a very meaningful reduction in emissions and set an example for other countries to follow,” said Guterres. More than 120 countries, including China, the largest emitter, have pledged to have zero net carbon emissions by the middle of the century.
University of Maryland environmental professor Nate Hultman, who worked on the Obama administration’s official Paris goal, said he expects a 2030 target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by between 40% and 50% from baseline levels. 2005.
Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate energy panel, has criticized Biden for rejoining Paris, tweeting, “Returning to the Paris Climate Agreement will increase Americans’ energy costs and will not solve climate change. The Biden administration will set unworkable targets for the United States, while China and Russia can continue as usual. ″
A long-term international goal, included in the Paris Accord with an even more stringent target, is to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. The world has warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since then.
If the US rejoins the Paris Agreement and devises an ambitious emission reduction target, global warming would become “much more likely to well below 2 degrees – not just 2 degrees, but below 2 degrees,” said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather. . and climate director for the Breakthrough Institute.
Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
Read stories about climate issues by The Associated Press at https://apnews.com/hub/climate
Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears
The Associated Press Department of Health and Science is supported by the Science Education Department of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The AP is solely responsible for all content.