United States joins Paris climate agreement

President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order to join the United States in the Paris climate agreement, his first major move to tackle global warming as he brings the White House’s biggest team to the White House. climate change experts.

The Biden administration also intends to cancel the building permit for the Keystone XL pipeline between Canada and the United States and to sign additional orders in the coming days to reverse several of former President Donald Trump’s actions. that weaken environmental protections.

Biden vows to act quickly on climate change action, and his inclusion of scientists across government marks the start of a major policy shift after four years of the Trump administration weakening climate rules in favor producers of fossil fuels.

Almost every country in the world is party to the Paris Agreement, the historic non-binding agreement between nations to reduce their carbon emissions. Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in 2017.

Mitchell Bernard, chairman of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Biden’s order to join the deal made the United States part of the global solution to climate change rather than part of the problem.

“This is swift and decisive action,” Bernard said in a statement. “This sets the stage for the global action we need to address the climate crisis now, when there is still time to act.”

With a slim Democratic majority in the Senate, Biden could potentially achieve much of his ambitious climate agenda, including a $ 2 trillion economic plan to advance a clean energy transition, reduce carbon emissions from the industry, electricity by 2035 and reach net zero. emissions by 2050.

In his first months in office, Biden is expected to sign a wave of executive orders to address climate change, including conserving 30% of U.S. land and waters by 2030, protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from drilling, and role restoration and elevation. of science in government decisions.

Some climate lawsuits will take longer, including the administration’s plan to reverse a series of Trump environmental setbacks on clean air and water rules and global warming emissions. planet. The Trump administration has reversed more than 100 environmental rules in four years, according to a Columbia Law School study.

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“From Paris to Keystone to protecting gray wolves, these huge first steps by President Biden show that he is serious about ending climate and extinction crises,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, in a press release. “These strong measures must be the start of a furious race to avert catastrophe.”

The next major United Nations climate summit will take place in Glasgow, Scotland, in November. The signatory countries of the agreement will give updated emissions targets for the next decade.

One goal of the agreement is to keep the rise in global temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, from pre-industrial levels. The Earth is expected to warm by 1.5 C, or 2.7 F, over the next two decades.

Robert Schuwerk, executive director for North America at Carbon Tracker, said the return of the agreement signals to global markets that the United States will make tackling climate change a priority, but added that it does not t is only part of what the administration needs to do to reduce its emissions.

The United States is the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China. It should have an updated climate target and a concrete plan to reduce emissions from the electricity and energy sector.

“Joining is just table stakes,” said John Morton, who was President Barack Obama’s director of energy and climate at the National Security Council. “The hard work of putting the country on a path to becoming net zero emissions by mid-century begins now.”