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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced the United States’ return to the Paris International Agreement to tackle climate change, the centerpiece of a series of day one decrees aimed at restoring leadership American in the fight against global warming.
The announcements also included a blanket order to review all actions by former President Donald Trump to weaken climate change protection, revocation of a vital license for TC Energy’s Keystone XL pipeline project in Canada and a moratorium on oil and gas leasing activities in the Arctic. National Wildlife Refuge that the Trump administration recently opened for development.
Orders from the new sworn-in president will mark the start of a major policy reversal in the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter behind China, after the Trump administration pilloried climate science and canceled environmental regulations to maximize the development of fossil fuels.
Biden has vowed to put the United States on a path to net zero emissions by 2050 to match the large and rapid global reductions scientists deem necessary to avoid the most devastating effects of global warming, by using brakes on fossil fuels and massive investments in clean energy.
The road will not be easy, however, with political divisions in the United States, opposition from fossil fuel companies and wary international partners concerned about US policy changes standing in the way.
“We have seriously strayed over the past four years with a climate denier in the Oval Office,” said John Podesta, adviser to former President Barack Obama who helped craft the 2015 Paris Agreement. “We are entering the international arena with a credibility deficit.”
Biden’s ordinances also force government agencies to consider revising vehicle fuel efficiency standards and methane emission reductions, and to explore the possibility of re-expanding the boundaries of national wilderness monuments including the size had been reduced by the Trump administration.
While conservationists were thrilled with the orders, industry groups and conservatives criticized them.
Republican Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy mocked Biden’s decision to shut down oil and gas work in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, saying the new president “appears to be keeping his promise to turn Alaska into a large national park “.
The American Petroleum Institute, the country’s leading oil and gas industry lobby group, said it believed the blocking of the Keystone XL pipeline was a “step backwards.”
“This ill-advised move will hamper the United States ‘economic recovery, undermine North American energy security and strain relations with one of the United States’ greatest allies,” said IPY Chairman Mike Sommers.
Global counterparts and climate advocates have welcomed Washington’s return to cooperation on climate change, but expressed skepticism about its endurance and ability to overcome domestic political turmoil.
Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 Paris agreement late last year, arguing it was too costly for the U.S. economy.
“The United States continues to be the one and only country to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, which makes it, frankly, the pariah of this multilateral agreement,” the former climate chief of the United States told Reuters. UN Christiana Figueres.
Biden can regain America’s credibility by “doing national homework” for ambitious climate action at home.
Brian Deese, director of Biden’s National Economic Council, told Reuters that the United States hopes to encourage other major emitters to also “push their ambition, even as we have to demonstrate our ability to come back on stage and demonstrate leadership “.
Pete Betts, an associate researcher at London think tank Chatham House who led the climate negotiations for the European Union when the Paris deal was reached, said the United States will also have to keep its promises through commitments financial.
The United States under Obama pledged $ 3 billion to the Green Climate Fund to help vulnerable countries tackle climate change. So far it has only shipped a billion dollars.
“The United States will have to put money on the table and encourage others to do the same,” he said.
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