President Joe Biden signs an executive order re-joining the U.S. into the Paris Climate accord, one of his first moves to take on Climate Change
January 20, 2021
In one of his first moves, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to re-join the U.S. into the Paris climate agreement. In 2017 Trump had withdrawn the U.S. from this agreement to which almost every nation is a member. This is Biden’s first move to tackle Climate Change.
Biden vows to move quickly to tackle the problem of climate change and has brought in the biggest team of climate change experts into the White House. The administration also intends to cancel the permit of the Canada to U.S. Keystone XL pipeline along with several other orders to reverse actions of former President Donald Trump, which have been weakening environmental protections.
In his first few days, Biden is expected to sign a number of executive orders addressing climate change. This includes conserving 30% of America’s land and waters by 2030, stopping drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as well as restoring and elevating the role of science in government decisions. There is a potential chance that Biden may achieve a major part of his ambitious goals which also include an economic push of $2 Trillion for clean-energy transition which is aimed at cutting carbon emissions from the electricity sector by 2035 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
In the next major U.N. climate summit, which would be held in November, countries will give updated emissions targets for the next decade. As the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China, the U.S is expected to have an updated climate target and a concrete plan to reduce emissions from the power and energy sector.
A goal of the Paris agreement is to keep the global temperature from rising well below 2 degrees Celsius target, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, compared with pre-industrial levels.