President Joe Biden signs executive orders in the White House Oval Office in Washington, following his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States, US, January 20, 2021.
Tom Brenner | Reuters
President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday to rejoin the US to the Paris climate accord, his first major move to tackle global warming as he brings the largest team of climate change experts ever to the White House.
The Biden administration also plans to cancel the permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the US and sign additional orders in the coming days to undo several actions by former President Donald Trump that weaken environmental protection .
Biden vows to take swift action on climate change, and his government-wide inclusion of scientists marks the start of a major policy reversal after four years in which the Trump administration is weakening climate rules in favor of fossil fuel producers.
Almost every country in the world is part of the Paris Agreement, the historic non-binding agreement between countries to reduce their CO2 emissions. Trump withdrew the US from the agreement in 2017.
Mitchell Bernard, chair of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Biden’s order to rejoin the accord makes the US part of the global solution to climate change rather than part of the problem.
“This is a quick and decisive move,” said Bernard in a statement. “It sets the stage for the comprehensive action we need to tackle the climate crisis now, while there is still time to act.”
With a narrow Democratic majority in the Senate, Biden could potentially realize large parts of his ambitious climate agenda, including a $ 2 trillion economic plan to promote a clean energy transition, cut carbon emissions from the electricity sector by 2035 and reach a net zero. emissions by 2050.
During his first few months in office, Biden is expected to sign a wave of executive orders to address climate change, including preserving 30% of America’s land and waters by 2030, protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from drilling, and restoring and strengthening the role. of science in government decisions.
Some legal action regarding the climate will take longer, including the government’s plan to reverse a slew of Trump’s environmental rollbacks on clean air and water rules and global warming. According to research from Columbia Law School, the Trump administration has rolled back more than 100 environmental regulations in four years.
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“From Paris to Keystone to protecting gray wolves, these huge first steps by President Biden show that he is serious about halting the climate and extinction crises,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. in a statement. “These strong steps must be the start of a furious race to avoid catastrophe.”
The next major UN climate summit will be in Glasgow, Scotland, in November. Countries in the agreement will provide updated emission targets for the next decade.
The goal of the agreement is to keep the global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to pre-industrial levels. The Earth will warm by 1.5 C or 2.7 F. for the next two decades.
Robert Schuwerk, executive director for North America at Carbon Tracker, said rejoining the accord sends a signal to world markets that the US will make tackling climate change a priority, but added that it is only part of what the government should do to reduce emissions.
The US is the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China. It is expected to have an updated climate target and a concrete plan to reduce emissions from the electricity and energy sectors.
“Getting back together is just a matter of play,” said John Morton, President Barack Obama’s energy and climate director at the National Security Council. “The hard work of setting the country on track to become net zero emissions by the middle of this century is starting now.”