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WASHINGTON – President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. campaigned on the most ambitious climate platform of any presidential candidate in history, pledging to spend $ 2 trillion over four years to reduce emissions from fossil fuels that warm the planet and convert much of the country to cleaning energy.
The possibility that the Senate could remain under the control of Republicans, who have generally opposed climate legislation, puts the brakes on some of its most important projects. But with or without Democratic Senate control, the first 100 days of the Biden administration are likely to see a wave of executive action to tackle climate change, as well as major push to insert provisions on climate change. clean energy in legislation that could pass with a bipartisan. coalition.
Here are nine things Mr. Biden could do early on to get the United States back on track in the fight against climate change.
1. Join the Paris Agreement
Mr. Biden has been engaged throughout the campaign, and again this week, that on the day he takes office, he will re-commit the United States to join the global agreement on climate change. It would only require a letter to the UN and would take effect 30 days later.
2. Bring together world leaders
Mr Biden said he intended to hold a “world climate summit” to pressure the leaders of major industrial nations to more aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
3. Reverse energy downshifts
Expect the Biden administration to immediately overturn a large number of President Trump’s energy executive orders, particularly a March 2017 order calling on every federal agency to dismantle its climate policy. Several experts have said he is likely to replace it with one declaring his administration’s intention to reduce greenhouse gases and asking all government agencies to look for ways to do so.
4. Make climate a part of coronavirus relief
The Biden administration will most likely push to include clean energy provisions in any new economic stimulus that Congress considers. This could include things like funding research and development for clean energy, money for states to continue expanding into renewable energy, and an extension of tax credits for renewable energy industries.
5. Sign decrees to reduce emissions
Developing and finalizing new regulations will take time and, if challenged, may ultimately be overturned by the conservative majority in the Supreme Court. But Mr Biden indicated that early in his administration he will sign executive orders ordering agencies to develop new methane limits for oil and gas wells, restore and strengthen fuel economy standards and to tighten efficiency standards for devices and buildings.
6. Create a new financial regulation
Mr Biden also said he would sign an executive order on his first day in office requiring state-owned companies to disclose the financial risks and greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate change in their operations.
7. Revise the rules on fossil fuel production
Mr Biden is expected to cancel a 2017 executive order to lift restrictions on offshore energy exploration and production. It could also stop the Trump administration’s expedited reviews of pipelines and other fossil fuel projects.
8. Prioritize environmental justice
Mr Biden has made tackling the effects of pollution and global warming in low-income communities a central part of his climate plan. In the short term, a Biden administration could create an Environmental Justice Advisory Board to coordinate policies across agencies and take concrete actions such as increasing pollution monitoring in vulnerable communities and creating tools for monitoring. mapping to better understand the disparities.
9. Restore wildlife areas
Mr. Biden pledged to take “immediate action to reverse Trump’s assault on United States national treasures,” including major cuts in 2017 to the national monuments of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, as well as opening parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. He said that on the first day of his administration, he would sign an executive order to conserve 30% of the land and water of the United States by 2030.
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