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Secretary of State Tony Blinken announced on Friday that the United States has officially joined the Paris climate agreement, arguing that it “will help us all avoid catastrophic global warming” and “build resilience” in the world.
The largely symbolic act comes as the Biden administration quickly took action to reverse former President Donald Trump’s energy policies – including revoking the Keystone XL pipeline license. President Biden also signed executive measures to eliminate federal subsidies for oil and other fossil fuels and decided to end new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters.
Blinken, in a statement on Friday, described the deal as an “unprecedented framework for global action.”
“We know this because we helped design it and make it a reality,” he said. “Its goal is both 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 already have.”
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Republicans pushed back on action.
“By joining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden indicates that he is more interested in the opinions of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh,” Texan Senator Ted Cruz tweeted last month. “This deal will do little to affect the climate and hurt Americans’ livelihoods.”
Biden, on his first day in office, signed papers to join the Paris climate accord. The Trump administration formally left the deal last year. The Paris Agreement was a global pact created under the Obama administration to fight climate change.
Blinken on Friday said “as memorable” as the first US membership in 2016, and as “momentous as our reinstatement is today – what we are doing in the weeks, months and years to come. is even more important.
Blinken said Americans “will continue to see the ‘Biden administration’ mainstream climate change into our most important bilateral and multilateral conversations at all levels” and call on global partners to discuss ways to ‘do more together’.
“Climate change and science diplomacy can never again be ‘additions’ to our foreign policy discussions,” Blinken said. “Addressing the real threats of climate change and listening to our scientists is at the center of our domestic and foreign policy priorities.”
He added: “It is vital in our discussions on national security, migration, international health efforts and in our economic diplomacy and trade negotiations.”
Blinken added that the United States is “re-engaging the world on all fronts” and noted that Biden will host the Leaders’ Climate Summit in April. Blinken added that the United States is “very eager to work with the United Kingdom and other countries around the world to make COP26 a success.”
Biden, after attending a virtual meeting of the G-7 countries on Friday, said the United States and its partners “must accelerate our commitments and hold each other accountable.”
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“This is why, as president, I joined the Paris Agreement,” he said on Friday. “The United States is officially a party to the Paris Agreement, which we helped put in place.”
Biden added that the United States is “determined to re-engage with Europe” and “to regain its position.”
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Biden last year announced that former Secretary of State John Kerry would serve as special presidential envoy for climate and sit on the National Security Council – the first time the NSC has included a dedicated climate change official.
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