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A few hours after being sworn in as President of the United States, Joe Biden took his first major move at the White House, including signing an executive order to rejoin the Paris climate agreement.
Therefore, the United States will officially resume its historical commitment to limit the temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius within 30 days. Under the guidance of former President Donald Trump, the United States withdrew from the agreement on November 4, 2020, the day after the presidential election.
“The cry for survival comes from [the] The planet itself,” Biden said His inauguration speech, “Can no longer despair or cry more clearly.”
The Paris Agreement is not so much a substantive promise as it is a symbolic promise. For the Trump administration, Abandon agreement show The U.S. is giving up its role As a climate leader, rather than redouble your efforts to become a country that relies on fossil fuel extraction.Now, under the leadership of the Biden administration, this move is A series of early actions Changing Trump’s agenda in everything from immigration to pandemic response-symbolizing that the country is more committed to responding to the climate crisis than ever before.
Even before Biden signed the executive order, the climate community began to praise it.
“Welcome back to the Paris climate agreement,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter.
Helen Mumford, vice president of climate and economics at the World Resources Institute, said in a statement: “When rejoining the Paris Agreement, President Biden will immediately indicate that this is a new day for the United States to participate in climate change.” “In order to regain trust. After taking this action, we must set ambitious U.S. climate goals for 2030 and significantly increase climate financing for vulnerable countries.”
The need to take action has never been more urgent, because the world is on the trajectory of catastrophic warming Over 3 degrees Celsius If there is no change, compare with the pre-industrial level.Last week, scientists announced that 2020 is actually tied with 2016 The hottest year on record. In the United States, last year’s successive hurricanes and wildfires caused A record number of disasters caused at least $1 billion in damages.
Biden campaigned on the most aggressive climate platform of all presidential candidates, including repeated pledges to rejoin the Paris Agreement on his first day as president.
Since Biden won the election, the incoming administration named addressing Climate change is its top priority And immediately began to lay the foundation for the implementation of comprehensive changes.
The Transition Team announced in November that Barack Obama’s former Secretary of State John Kerry will assume the post of the newly created President’s special envoy on climate issues. In this position, Kerry will oversee the country’s international climate negotiations, including its participation in the Paris Agreement.
Then in December, the transition team announced plans for the newly established White House Domestic Climate Policy Office. Led by Gina McCarthy, Obama’s former Director of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Although the Democrats now lead the Senate by a narrow majority, Biden is expected to rely more on executive orders and new regulations to set his climate agenda. Passing bold legislation in a divided Congress, where many Republican members still question the urgency of the crisis and support continued dependence on fossil fuels, is expected to be a serious challenge.
As part of Biden’s initial climate action, he is instructing federal agencies to review the various climate rules that were finalized under the previous administration, relaxing automobile fuel economy and emission standards, methane emission standards, and electrical and building efficiency standards. He is also rebuilding the Inter-agency Working Group on Social Costs of Greenhouse Gases and revoking the presidential license for the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
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