Make no mistake, returning to the Paris climate agreement is not mere symbolism – it is an act cloaked in powerful, political significance. While re-joining the pact involves the simple signing of a letter and a 30-day wait, there could be no more profound signal of intention from this incoming administration. Coming back to Paris means the US will have once again have to follow the rules. Those rules mean that sometime this year the US will have to improve on their previous commitment to cut carbon made in the French capital in 2015. This new target, possibly for 2030, and President Biden’s commitment to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, will be the guide rails for the US economy and society for decades to come.
BBC 20th Jan 2021 read more »
Joe Biden will spend his first hours as president trying to obliterate much of the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda, restore public land protections and re-establish the United States as a global leader on climate change policy. Biden will sit in the Oval Office later today and sign a sweeping executive order to rejoin the Paris Agreement and undo President Trump’s rollback of greenhouse gas policies, said Gina McCarthy, Biden’s national climate adviser.
Scientific American 20th Jan 2021 read more »
Joe Biden has made a desire to unleash a new era of bold US climate action a central plank of his electoral mandate, and all the signs since his victory last November suggest he is serious about delivering on his promises. A seriousness that culminated in his evocative warning in his inaugural address yesterday that the world was experiencing a “cry for survival” from the planet itself.
Business Green 21st Jan 2021 read more »
Joe Biden’s pledges of strong action on the climate crisis have buoyed international hopes that 2021 can be a breakthrough year, resetting the world on a greener path to net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Climate experts cheered the inauguration of the new US president, who has vowed to rejoin the Paris agreement, rethink US reliance on fossil fuels, and devote hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus spending to low-carbon economic growth.
Guardian 21st Jan 2021 read more »
Independent 20th Jan 2021 read more »
What is the Green New Deal and how does Biden’s climate plan compare? Just weeks after the US election, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive members of “the squad” rallied outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters demanding Joe Biden embrace the Green New Deal. “We are all here today because of the movement … because at the end of the day, dollars don’t vote, people do,” Representative Ocasio-Cortez said at the rally on 20 November. During the election campaign, President Biden said that he would not pursue a Green New Deal, and instead laid out his own $2trillion plan for addressing the climate crisis. But the president’s plan has drawn criticism from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party who say the proposals do not go far enough.
Independent 20th Jan 2021 read more »
If Donald Trump had hoped to up-end the global consensus on climate change by leaving the Paris Agreement, he has proved ineffectual. As Mr Trump rowed back on environmental regulations and dismissed global warming as a hoax, the rest of the world finally started to get to grips with the need to cut carbon emissions. That Joe Biden is more serious than any previous US president about tackling climate change therefore says as much about the time we’re in as it does about the man himself. Mr Trump’s actions have left the US as a laggard in climate action, trailing the EU and China on carbon neutrality commitments. If the Biden administration has any hope of being at the forefront of this new global reality, the race will be on.
Telegraph 19th Jan 2021 read more »