The United States has officially returned to the Paris climate agreement

The United States officially returned to the Paris Agreement on Friday, with the promise of President Joe Biden’s administration to make the fight against climate change a top priority.

A month after Biden took office, The United States – the world’s largest economy and second largest emitter of carbon – once again joined the 2015 Global Compact to cope with the dangerous rise in global temperatures.

This re-entry means that the Paris Agreement again includes virtually every country in the world, after Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump scrapped the deal, arguing it was unfair to the North American country.

In a speech at the Munich security conference, Biden called on European countries to step up their commitments in the fight against climate change. “We can no longer delay or do the bare minimum to tackle climate change,” he said. “It’s a global existential crisis. We will all suffer the consequences “.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that “climate change and science diplomacy can never again be ‘added’ to our foreign policy discussions“.

“Facing the real threats of climate change and listening to our scientists is at the center of our national and foreign policy priorities. It is vital in our discussions on national security, migration, in international health efforts and in our trade negotiations and economic diplomacy.“He added.

Praising the Paris Agreement, negotiated by former President Barack Obama, Blinken said climate diplomacy will be crucial in the future. “The Paris Agreement is an unprecedented framework for global action,” Blinken said in a statement. “We know it because we help design it and make it happen. Its goal is simple and broad: to help all of us avoid catastrophic global warming and build resilience around the world to the impacts of climate change we are already seeing.“, He added.

Biden has a climate summit scheduled for April 22, which will coincide with Earth Day. John Kerry, former secretary of state and now US climate envoy, called on the world to increase its ambitions at the UN climate talks in Glasgow in November.

Biden’s commitment is to make America’s energy sector pollution-free by 2035 and move to a zero-emission economy by 2050.

Trump, an ally of the fossil fuel industry, he had argued that the Paris Agreement was unfair to the United States.

No obstante, más allá de las ambiciones expresadas por los distintos países, los objetivos de este pacto son esencialmente no vinculantes, y cada nación redacta sus propias medidas, un punto en el que insistieron Obama y Kerry, aware of the oposición política that infringe United States.

The Paris Agreement aims to limit the increase in global temperature to 2 ° C above pre-industrial levels and continue the effort to reduce it to 1.5 ° C.

Political momentum around the issue has grown amid signs that climate change is already wreaking significant havoc. A recent study found that 480,000 people have died so far this century in natural disasters linked to extreme climates, which are increasingly common due to the effects of climate change.

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