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The United States officially returned to the global Paris climate agreement on Friday, and U.S. leaders said the nation could no longer afford to rule out the growing climate crisis again.
“Climate change and science diplomacy can never again be ‘additions’ to our foreign policy discussions,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement during what should be an awareness day of the Biden administration to global and national audiences. on the United States’ re-engagement to reduce climate-damaging fossil fuel emissions.
“Dealing with the real threats of climate change and listening to our scientists is at the center of our domestic and foreign policy priorities,” said Blinken. “He is essential in our discussions on national security, migration, international health efforts, as well as in our economic diplomacy and trade negotiations.”
Officially, the withdrawal by President Donald Trump of the nation from the global climate pact lasted only 107 days. It was part of Trump’s withdrawal from global allegiances in general and his oft-voiced but false point of view. that the ongoing global warming was a ridiculously mistaken take by scientists around the world.
While Friday’s return is highly symbolic, world leaders say they expect America to prove its seriousness after a four-year absence. They anticipate in particular an announcement by the United States in the coming months on its objective of reducing heat-trapping gas emissions by 2030.
United States returns to Paris agreement became official on Friday, nearly a month after President Joe Biden told the United Nations America wanted to return. “A cry for survival comes from the planet itself,” Biden said in his inaugural address. “A cry that cannot be more desperate or clearer now.”
Biden signed an executive order on the first day of his term rescinding the Trump-ordered pullout. The Trump administration announced its withdrawal of the Paris Agreement in 2019, but it only entered into force on November 4, 2020, the day after the elections, due to provisions of the agreement.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that the official American return “is in itself very important,” as was Biden’s announcement that the United States will return to providing climate assistance to the poorest countries. , as promised in 2009.
“This is the political message that is being sent,” said Christiana Figueres, former UN climate chief. She was one of the main forces in shaping the 2015 largely voluntary agreement in which countries set their own greenhouse gas reduction targets.
One of the fears was that other nations would follow America in abandoning the fight against the climate, but none did, Figueres said. She said the real problem was four years of climate inaction by the Trump administration. American cities, states, and businesses were still striving to reduce heat-trapping carbon dioxide, but without the federal government.
“From a political symbolism standpoint, whether it’s 100 days or four years, it’s basically the same thing,” Figueres said. “It’s not about how many days. It’s political symbolism that the biggest economy refuses to see the opportunity to tackle climate change. “
“We have wasted too much time,” Figueres said.
United Nations Environment Program Director Inger Andersen said America needs to prove its leadership to the rest of the world, but said she has no doubts when she submits her reduction targets shows. The Biden administration promises to announce them ahead of an Earth Day summit in April.
“We hope that they will translate into a very significant reduction in emissions and that they will be an example for other countries to follow,” said Guterres. Already more than 120 countries, including China, the largest emitter, have pledged to have net zero carbon emissions by mid-century.
University of Maryland environment professor Nate Hultman, who worked on the Obama administration’s official Paris target, said he expects a 2030 target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. carbon between 40% and 50% compared to 2005 reference levels.
Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate energy panel, criticized Biden for joining Paris, tweeting: “Returning to the Paris climate agreement will increase energy costs for Americans and not will not solve climate change. The Biden administration will set unachievable targets for the United States while China and Russia can continue their business as usual. ”
A long-standing international goal, included in the Paris agreement with an even stricter target, is to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. The world has warmed by 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since then.
The fact that the United States joins the Paris agreement and proposes an ambitious emission reduction target would make limiting warming “well below 2 degrees – not just to 2 degrees but below 2 degrees – much more likely “said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, energy specialist. and climate director for the Breakthrough Institute.
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Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
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Read the Associated Press articles on climate issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate.
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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears.
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The Associated Press’s Department of Health and Science receives support from the Department of Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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