Biden returns the US to the climate agreement

In one of his first official acts, President Joe Biden planned to return the United States to the global fight against global warming and launch a series of green efforts that could radically transform the use of vehicles and electricity.

“A cry for survival comes from the planet itself,” Biden said in his inauguration speech. “A cry that could not be more desperate or clearer now.”

Biden was to sign a presidential decree to rejoin the Paris climate accord in the first hours of his presidency, thereby fulfilling a campaign promise. The step cancels the withdrawal ordered by his predecessor Donald Trump, who disdained scientific knowledge about global warming, eliminated regulations on emissions generated by the use of oil, gas and coal and encouraged oil and gas exploration in the Arctic and other natural areas.

The Paris Agreement commits 195 countries and other signatories to setting a goal to reduce carbon pollution and report their fossil fuel emissions. The United States is the second largest emitter in the world, after China.

Biden’s order will help solidify political will globally, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday.

“No country in this world, no matter how powerful, how many resources it has, can do it on its own,” said Ban, speaking to the press in the Netherlands ahead of a Climate Adaptation Summit. “We all have to collaborate. That is the lesson, the difficult lesson that we have learned in the last year ”when Trump fulfilled his promise to remove the country from the climate agreement.

Biden will also use presidential decrees to overturn other Trump climate measures. The new president will order a temporary moratorium on new oil and gas leases in what had been an untouched area of ​​the Arctic, instruct federal agencies to begin studying stricter mileage standards and other emissions limits, and revoke approval of the pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline.

Another agenda for day one instructs agencies to consider the impact on the climate, poor communities and future generations of any regulations that affect fossil fuel emissions, a new requirement. Climatic changes caused by human activity are responsible for the worsening of natural disasters, including forest fires, droughts, floods and hurricanes.

However, there was no immediate mention of whether Biden would fulfill another campaign promise, to ban new oil and gas leases on federal land.

Once Biden notifies the UN in writing of his intention to rejoin the Paris Agreement, it will be effective in 30 days, United Nations spokesman Alex Saier said.

_

–